A Powers of Mind Perspective on Michael Brown's Death

At the heart of the senseless death of Michael Brown are the beliefs and values we have toward human life. Regardless of the societal labels of race, gender, color, status, and so on that we identify with, we continue to devalue human life based on these labels.

The conditions for Michael Brown's death began with our ignoring the fact that more people are killed each year in our cities than the combined total of American deaths from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. This surge in self-hatred has contributed significantly to the way we place value on human life in our cities.

And at the core of our disinterest is the criteria  we are using to prioritize the value of human life. What makes us believe that one killing or death is more important than another one?

Many of us ignore or try to escape the carnage. While many others apply societal labels to the deaths. Yet, in the main, we have anesthetized our minds to accept inner-city violence and deaths as part of the social fabric permeating our inner-city neighborhoods. 

Nevertheless, Michael  Brown's death caused by policeman, Darren Wilson, is not just an inner-city problem, but an American problem. And we all, regardless of our self-adopted labels, are responsible for creating the conditions that caused Mr. Brown's death.

It's important for us to know that we were born into a society or world that was already established by beliefs and values. We were taught  by our parents, society, and from our experience how to embody these beliefs and values. And unknown to us, we were accepting beliefs and values that separated us from each other.

We now have the opportunity to wake-up our minds to at least understand how we developed ourselves. And to recognize that we cannot come together, because we have never been together. When we can acknowledge this fact, then we can  transform our minds with the clarity to overcome the illusions behind the labels.

Whenever we decide to change our traditional beliefs and values, we move further from our culture or from an established way of life. This means that others are going to think we have deserted them or moved out of "The Cave" into the light. Unfortunately, this is what we all must do if we desire to change how we think and live.

The process of change is difficult for many of us to understand. It doesn't occur in a vacuum. It is not an instantaneous awakening of the mind. It is a slow, methodical, and inexorable challenge to the beliefs and values most dear to us.

This is a journey we must make if we desire to transform our minds. We must be willing to face our fears on powerlessness. And have the willingness to lose our beliefs and values so that we can transform our minds with enlightened ones.

Our challenge is to awaken our minds enough to go beyond our current disquietude. We must work on our minds so that we understand and remove the beliefs and values we are using to judge people from different races and cultures.

Our awareness of being must be willing to go deeper into our Powers of Mind and discover the clarity to understand and remove the beliefs and values we're using to support Michael Brown and Darren Wilson.

When we decide to seriously discover and use our Powers of Mind, we will understand that all life matters. At this level of consciousness, we understand that our divisions, our anger, and our distrust come from the beliefs and values we received from our parents, society, and from our experience.