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New Day Herald

Turning the Tide Toward Peace

Article imageThe following is a seminar and blessing that John Morton gave to a group traveling with him at Omaha Beach in France, one of the sites of the D-Day invasion in World War II.

One of the things that we do as a group is to bring the consciousness of peace. First, we bring peace in ourselves. We make an effort to find the peace that’s present inside, regardless of where we are and what the circumstances are. We can always be aware of that peace and do our best to express the peace that’s present—to see it in any situation, to see it in others, to look for ways to allow peace to have dominion, to let peace reign in what we’re doing and experiencing together.

There’s an opportunity to turn the tide toward peace. If there was a World War I and a World War II, does that mean there’s going to be a World War III? If we’re counting, that may seem like a natural progression. If you go one, you go two, and then three. And if we consider what that might mean, we would choose otherwise, because we are those who choose peace. So let’s allow that consciousness that chooses peace to be placed here and to be placed wherever we walk.

We can bring a very powerful blessing of peace to this land, to this region, and to the planet. It may seem impossible for us to make a difference. History says that there has always been warring, there has always been battling. So how can we, a small group of people, have any influence on turning the tide, so that there is a day when peace is everlasting and we come and find beauty where there was once destruction and terror?
Let’s take advantage of being here on Omaha Beach for a moment to consider a couple of things that we might find profound. One would be: What is it that would cause us to give up our life, so that we would actually choose to walk into our death? Or at least, what would cause us to consider the possibility that we would take that step, knowing that we could be choosing to sacrifice our life? The words that were on the monument at the American Cemetery here at Omaha Beach were about freedom, valor, courage, and letting go—giving up everything that we would like to have in this world. There were those who were letting go of their families, their lives at home, perhaps not really knowing why. Maybe they just signed up one day because their friends were doing it and it just seemed like a noble thing to do. But I’m sure that once they got here, at this point where they were starting to come ashore, the reality of the situation hit them. And when fear comes upon us, it’s a great tester.

We’ve all had these kinds of fears, which aren’t necessarily about giving up our life. Sometimes they’re about giving up things that we think are important. When we make a choice to sacrifice ourselves, to actually give our life over to something, that’s obviously a cause that’s worth a lot. There are some questions to be considered: “Is it really worth it? Would any of the sacrifices have made any difference if somebody had refused? And what if all of them had refused?” Someone once said, “What if they called a war and nobody came?” What if there wasn’t anybody to fight with? It’s an interesting idea to consider.

For the moment it might be good to consider how you would face your own death, because that’s one of those things we all have coming up. It’s on the program. Would you face it shaking in your boots, or would you face it with a lot of calm? Or maybe the realization is, “I don’t know how I’m going to face my death because I have no idea what that is. But I do have some idea of how I might like to die: to be able to stand up inside, to die with some kind of dignity.”

Regardless of what people gave their lives over to or what they chose to do, another part of the choice was sitting here: the choice not to kill. The soldiers who landed here had to realize that they were coming ashore to kill. That was the job that they were assigned to do: to kill the enemy. And consider who the enemy is. If you were wearing a certain kind of uniform, perhaps that was the only reason that they were given to kill. What kind of choice would that be, to take someone else’s life just because they are wearing a certain kind of uniform, even though they look just as you or I do now?

It’s one thing to take our own life, to do things to ourselves in a choice of sacrifice. But what is it to take someone else’s? Sometimes it feels like it’s a matter of survival: “We had to kill, or be killed.” Once we’ve done it, there’s something about being in that process that’s very powerful. One powerful aspect of having been in war and witnessed death and destruction, terror and pain, is the memory. And part of what we are to do now is to heal that memory—to lift the memory here that is terrible, painful, disturbing, where somehow we forget our divine nature, or someone else has managed to forget it, so that we hurt one another, and we chose to sacrifice anyone’s life, our own or someone else’s.
If you’re like me, then you realize that all of us could find a repository of something terrible inside us, and attempt to lift the memories of thousands and millions of people as we go back through time. Often fear is based on things that have happened from the past. The awareness can bring up the fear and terror from the unconscious and there’s no tangible explanation for it. And because we’re sensitive, we can pick up on the terror that’s in a place like this where massive killing took place. Through time, there has been a lot of what’s been called “man’s inhumanity to man,” and we walk in it constantly. So perhaps we’ve all become insensitive, and have chosen to place these experiences in an unconscious state so that we would be able to go on. Perhaps if we were faced with the reality of what we’ve witnessed, what we’ve done, and what has happened to us, it would render us dysfunctional, or we would lose our mind and our common sense.

So thank God that there has been a blessing so that we forget and what has happened becomes more and more invisible. Part of the blessing of our visit here is to take that memory, the collective memory of death and destruction, murder, mayhem, warring, and all the causes that have led to such acts, in ourselves and in others, and place it into an invisible state of the Light and peace of God. We bring forward the knowing that all is good, that all is precious, that there is no such thing as lack.

Would you sacrifice the sense of betrayal, the sense that you have been violated? Would you give that up so you can walk in peace, so that there is no cause of againstness within you? Are you willing to reach deep into all of your existence and give up whatever memory can be found, consciously or unconsciously, concerning you or others? Would you make that sacrifice here? You can make that choice for yourself—to sacrifice the past injustice, violation, and terror. You can also make it for others as an invitation, as a beckoning that the angels hold to come forward to lift us and remind us of our true nature—that we are good, loving beings, because that is how God has made us all.

We take courage, so that if we are again violated and we either express or witness injustice and insensitivity, we make the choice of peace. We refuse to lift a hand against another. We choose to keep our mind in check, so that we will not think ill of another. Somehow, we’ll choose to understand even what we do not understand and give others the choice of peace. We’ll understand that when somebody acts out violence or negativity, it is because of some pain that they feel, some disturbance that they have not been able to bring to peace. And rather than return the againstness and the violence, we choose to hold ourselves in peace.

Peace can be a cause of the spiritual warrior, one who takes the strength, the courage and the dedication that is peace and love, and carries that forward into the day, knowing that there will be attacks, either from within, where the greater negativity can be found, or from without, where in the flow of the karma, in the flow of the negativity, the world will bring us something to turn to peace.

As we can do it in this place, it can be done for the entire planet. For we all know that in this moment, there are those who are enraged, who are caught up in causes of violence and destruction, always seemingly with some sense of justice or duty, often because of something that has happened. And from this place of peace here, we place the energies of peace that calm the heart, that lift the memory, that bring the consciousness to a knowing that there is good to be done.

There is forgiveness in our midst. And now we ask for God’s help, that as we come to this place, this shore, and we go forward into this land, we go forward in a cause of peace to do the Light and love of God that conquers all, that quiets whatever has been disturbing.

We place this blessing through the Christ and the Holy Spirit, that the Traveler walks here this day, visiting those who have forgotten their way to God. No longer are they to remain, as the Light has opened a way, that would gently usher those who have forgotten the way and have been caught in things long ago. We are here to assist, to extend a hand, and to see that there are beautiful things prepared. There is a sanctuary of peace. There is joy. There are opportunities to rejoin families and friends. The joy is inherent this day. Thanks be to God.

Baruch Bashan

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