Issue #21, April. 28th, 07

Spiritual Death vs. Virginia Tech.

What dies? Is it possible to be dead before we die? In this life, or what we think of as Life, we are entirely focused on physical death – the death of the body. The horror of the tragedy at Virginia Tech brings this into sharp focus. We ask ourselves what could drive someone to turn mad and to kill people. What kind of person could mow down others in their prime of life? Strangely enough the answer literally lies inside each one of us and my book, Awakening, provides the answer.

After the Virginia Tech massacre many in my office were shocked and horrified. Some of my clients went on at length wanting an answer – wanting to know why. And yet, I have had clients who had never said, “I love you” to their spouse. Some have never asked for forgiveness for transgressions. I have had clients who have not had intimate relations for over 15 years. The hatred between them was palpable in the room. The number one problem I deal with on a daily basis is hatred. Blame, disgust, defensiveness, and self-justification are all forms of hate.

So the root problem is not prevention of the madness that produced a Virginia Tech, it is finding the madness inside of each one of us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spends some time explaining that what you do in your mind is equivalent to doing it in actuality. John says that hatred is equivalent to murder and murderers have no Life in them. This equivalency of our notions and our behavior is repeated over and over in many ancient texts and scriptures.

A disciple wanted to follow Jesus but said that he needed to bury his father first. Jesus’ answer was very telling. He said that the disciple should follow Him and let the dead bury their own dead. Did he mean this as spiritually dead or physically dead? IT DOESN’T MATTER. Death is death. Paul tells us that the payoff of unconsciousness is death. But that God’s gift is eternal Life.

For generations humankind has assumed the only way out of this was to live a better life – do gooder. We have so much evidence, even in our own lives, that this efforting does not work. We simply cannot pit our will against our nature. The fundamental problem is the ego-mind itself. Many references in texts both eastern and western call for a renewing of the mind or a transformation of our thinking. How can we accomplish this?

The fundamental problem is a misunderstanding that we are our thinking. All the violence and hostility in the world comes from thinking and our assumption that thinking is us. When carefully examined, thinking reveals itself as motivated by self-enhancement and self-concern. Even seemingly trivial thoughts are ultimately the ego’s way of preparing to survive in the next moment. If my mind is geared toward survival, the bottom line is that you must die so I can live.

Witness Thought Transformation™ is my contribution to freeing ourselves from this internal hell. The steps to this transformation are clearly laid out in Awakening. Awakening is the transformation that occurs when we no longer identify with our thoughts and we literally move outside of the mind into the Awareness that exits beyond thought. This makes the choice for Life as opposed to death obvious and easy. The time has come to choose Life. It is not a moral choice. It is matter of Self discovery. The Self is Life. The little “me” that appears to live in the head is death.

Join Mark Today

Saturday, April 28th, I will be at the Learning Light Foundation doing an afternoon workshop from 1 to 4 pm. The workshop will emphasize the exercises found in my new book, Awakening. We hope that many participant experience their own awakening while they are there.

Please join us on the 28th! Come and experience Witness Thought Transformation ^TM.

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