Having read this recent thought provoking article by William Bloom , I feel he highlights an important issue facing both Therapists and non Therapists alike.

Jayne

I wrote this for Cygnus Magazine in June 2007. The editors asked me to write something in response to some of the terrible comments around the kidnapping in Portugal of the little girl and other comments concerning Darfur and other world crises.

Dear Friends,

Over the years it has been an honour for me to advance and defend new age and holistic spirituality. I love its open-mindedness, its embrace of metaphysics and the way it combines spiritual work with healthcare. But I have also despaired at times about its apparent lack of morality and compassion when faced with the realities of people’s suffering......

This coldness is often explained away with half-baked ideas about how energies, karma and the laws of attraction work. This often reaches a peak of disturbing smugness when a new age ‘philosopher’ faced with cruel suffering says authoritatively: ‘People create their own reality’, or ‘Their soul chose it - it’s their karma’, or ‘Everything is perfect in God’s Plan - you just need to perceive it differently’. People who say such things seem to have no idea how smug and nasty they sound. Nor of the hurt they cause.....

Read the full article:-

http://www.williambloom.com/pages.php?id=43http://www.williambloom.com/pages.php?id=43


www.williambloom.com

Last edited: 11-07-2007 04:29:00 PM

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Very thought provoking.

I've only recently been introduced to the idea of karma / making our own future / Louise Hay etc. etc. It seems feasible and I've been trying to 'think positive' to encourage my positive future... but I agree, we can't all be creating our circumstances when things like this happen. The people who do these things are monsters ! Its maybe THEIR situation that they have created, but the people affected are surely just dragged into it.

The main concern I have for these people now, is what happens next ? I don't know whether I believe in reincarnation / heaven / or nothing even ! But how can it be 'right' that these children are killed and thats their only chance gone ?!?

As I said above - thought provoking... and I only wish I knew.

Elaine

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Hi Elaine,

thanks for sharing your thoughts - You're on the right path with positive thinking me thinks!
I'm no expert either on karma and reincarnation either -but the article struck a chord with me though from personal experiences ( one in particular ) and professionally also.
I feel that there are many people who have a very black and white approach and like to convince us they have it all sussed. I just don't believe things are quite as simple as that....

Jayne

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Compassion means to suffer with, to have some kind of empathy and understanding of what it's like being the other person at that particular moment. The type of mindset that delivers "you got what you deserve" I believe blocks compassion. It is seeing the other person as separate from ourselves, seeing what's going on as "their suffering". Isn't this the ego at work?

When we are in a state of compassion, we can recognise that we all suffer together. Madeleine's mother's suffering becomes ours, Madeleine's suffering is ours also. I expect most people can feel that and feel compassion. What might be more difficult to stomach is that the atrocities committed by the kidnappers is also ours. If we had lived the life they have, had the upbringing and childhood they did, we might well commit the same crimes. We are collectively responsible as we collectively create the conditions under which such suffering can occur.

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I have the tendency to agree with this on the whole, but when I hear about ghastly things like the kids in Darfur, I really struggle to understand how I could have had anything to do with it.

And just another comment.... 'Spiritual' people who who 'poke their face into yours' & complacently lay down judgment, are only spiritual in their own opinion - they have an awfully long way to go & basically should be avoided at all costs.

Our physical dis-ease, IMHO, is always the result of our spiritual/emotional dis-ease, but is manifested to give us a nudge in the right direction so that we can confront/embrace/investigate it to put things right.

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