The Metaphysical View of Death and Life After Death Part 11

To conclude this section may we just add that Newton's subjects emphasize strongly that God is never once seen in the higher realms, although a strong feeling of a Supreme Power is felt ruling the ongoings of devachan, or "heaven," and the kinetic motion of magnetic streams of energy flowing in the atmosphere and environment. This truth denounces certain religious beliefs that in heaven one would finally see God face to face--for while on earth one may not see God's face and live, one would surely behold God's countenance in heaven. This principle has been vmisunderstood and misinterpreted for the past two thousand years; it should actually be understood in a mystical rather than in a literal manner. It reminds us of Gautama Buddha's silence when questioned about God--the implication of his subtle answer revealing a profound truth to the initiated.

Summarizing the scientific viewpoint on death and the afterlife--based on years of careful psychical, parapsychological research--the following conclusions have been reached:

1) That humans are essentially immaterial in nature and that the human essence, or self-awareness, survives physical death.

2) That human soul-units exist at differentiated levels of awareness in dimensions beyond the physical light-spectrum, beyond the reach of physical sensory perception.

3) That contact with departed souls is a possible feat under certain conditions and circumstances.

4) That all human soul-units periodically re-embody or reincarnate to continue their evolution.

5) That all re-embody according to the law of causation, or karma; or soul desire.


DISCUSSIONS

As we have seen in the previous chapter, death according to the various traditions, metaphysical experiences and modern scientific discoveries, does not annihilate the human soul; and relationships formed on the physical plane do not cease at the termination of one's incarnation, as is normally believed; also, one's aspirations, goals and ambitions, though simply and seemingly cut-short prematurely at a stroke of the scythe by the grim reaper called death, is actually brought over to the Otherside for a further strategic development that would bloom in a later incarnation. We have also seen that the nature of death and the afterlife can be known to those who are willing to develop the necessary sensory faculties of the astral form and its ability of soul-flight. Additionally, we have dealt somewhat of the nature of heaven and hell, including the Judgment, from the various metaphysical, religious and scientific perspectives. We have described and hinted of some of the ways and means of avoiding those undesired experiences, states and conditions to be found in the bardo, and even in the lower astral. Non-attachment to the physical form and earthly life is helpful in the process of a peaceful and easy transition, and in a smooth journey through the bardo--this ought to be kept in mind. And lastly, with the descriptions by subjects of NDEs and communications from the beyond concerning the death process, we can be assured that dying does not have to entail any mental, emotional or physical agony; on the contrary, it may result in one of the most joyful states that average souls may experience at its present evolutionary level. It provides a certain pre-taste of what the nirvanic state is like when once the soul is liberated and fully aware of its divine unity with All That Is.

Humans may fear death, but "being dead" is actually the present state of awareness of most people. To be unaware of one's higher microcosmic principles is simply a consciousness of death. What separates the seen from the unseen is the level of one's waking consciousness, and the psychological impurities within one's subconscious mind. There are several components in the microcosm making up what we call the divine, human being. The more components we are aware and conscious of, the more alive we become in the spiritual sense. Non-experience of the higher principles and realities do not mean that they do not exist, it is just that the faculty for higher perception has not yet been developed. Fear is what closes the veil to spiritual knowing. When we fear, we circumscribe our consciousness. Fear of the unknown, is the ignorance of the source of our fear. Identification with mortal principles simply perpetuates (or perpetrates?) one's mortal existence as a normal human being--and it also maintains one's fears. We are meant to be perfect--as advised by the Piscean Master--perfect in consciousness, in knowledge, and in awareness. Attaining immortality, or awareness of such, requires the shedding of mortal concepts, beliefs, attitudes and feelings. With such spiritual labour we gradually build the link between the lower and higher principles and ensure the continuity of consciousness, and the awareness of the illusory nature of death. With each extermination of a false concept we become more alive in a spiritual sense. Death, "the last enemy," as declared in scriptures, though inevitable, will be swallowed up in victory when once its maya-nature is understood and the continuity of consciousness acquired. Death will then lose its sting. Death ends when once the multidimensionality of one's being is realized, and when once one's liberation from the wheel of reincarnation is attained. What we call death is an illusion. This is echoed in the words of the Taoist poet, Chuang Tzu:

"Birth is not a beginning, death is not an end."

Fear simply robs individuals of their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energies--energies which could be used for more constructive and creative purposes. When enlightened of the nature of death, like Socrates, we will not fear it; and this knowledge, understanding, and enlightenment would greatly help humanity to live an abundant life, as promised by Master Jesus. Like a chain effect, the awareness of the non-existence of death and the truth of man's purpose for being would improve the quality, nature, and service of every governmental department and institution, affecting society's consciousness, development and welfare. But to return to the emotion of fear ingrained in Man, there are several principles that assist one to "die" without fear:

1) Non-attachment to physical form, earthly possessions, and relationships.

2) Understanding that death is natural and that it does not end one's aspirations.

3) Understanding and being aware of one's true nature as divine and immortal.

3) Preparation through spiritual practices such as meditation, purification, and the acquisition of merit through service.

4) The unfoldment of love and compassion.

From a higher perspective, death is no enemy. It is a merciful friend that grants us rest at a time when we need it. It provides a moment's respite until we re-engage ourselves in the battle of life through another incarnation with new--or old, unlearned experiences. What is important is the assimilation of experience, for if it does not take place, it will have to be undergone again and again until the lesson inherent in each one is learnt by the soul; this can sometimes prove to be wearisome. Life on earth should not be seen as a chance happening, as a biological occurrence in time and space, or as a chemical formation spawned by chaotic forces. Life is Real, is the only Reality and has a definite purpose. Knowing that life was formed on the earth plane for a purpose encourages the soul to discover that purpose. Soul-objective is known to the awareness-principle at deeper levels of consciousness and at the conscious level prior to incarnation. The purpose or intent of the Spirit, however, is normally forgotten once the "waters of Lethe" is drunk during the process of birthing.

Our main task set by evolution is to be aware or more conscious of the "unconscious" levels of the mind; thus transcending the state of mediocrity or mortality. Mortal beings are not courageous enough to think, contemplate or face the conditions of death, they thus miss the true opportunities that life affords. When one fears death, one has not yet begun to live. "Death" to average individuals, is always thought of in connection with other people and never their own. This refusal to be spiritually-aware bind souls to an unproductie life in the cosmic scheme. This is the complaint of all mystics concerning the sons of men. In the Old Testament we read,

"Man lies down and never rises. They rouse not from their sleep." (Job 14:12)

From what we have said so far, it may be surmised that there are various forms of death, and this is true. St. Paul hints of this when he declared, "I die daily" (I Cor 15:31). We tabulate the forms of death in the following:

1) Death to higher realities and verities

2) Death to a higher awareness of divinity

3) Death of one's slumber in matter

4) Death of the false ego and its carnal, self-centered desires

5) Death of sleep

6) Death of the physical and etheric bodies

7) Death of the astral body

8) Death of the mental form

We will briefly describe each one: death to higher realities and verities, and the death to higher awareness of divinity are related. This is in fact the involutionary path of the soul as it descends for the first time in a new cycle of manifestation, or "manvantara." In involution the soul loses a certain awareness only to regain it with an enhancement during the Path of Return. Most souls prolong this period of ignorance and awareness of higher multidimensional truths by their own free-will.

Death of one's slumber in matter is the awakening of the soul's aspiration to spiritual possibilities--paradoxically, it could also mean being spiritually unconscious; this is followed by the death, or transcendence of the false ego and its expressions in the movement within the evolutionary spiral. The death of sleep occurs every night as the soul takes flight to subtle worlds. Death of the physical and etheric bodies occur when one leaves the present incarnation for the astral world. This is followed by the deaths of the astral and mental forms as the soul rises higher and higher to rest for a period in the causal body before preparing to reincarnate.

Knowledge of the nature of death and the other worlds are important subjects for every metaphysician. As said earlier in this paper, in the course of one's metaphysical ministry, one would often encounter individuals in bereavement requiring comfort and solace. Equipped with a higher understanding of the nature of death and the purpose of life, metaphysicians are in a better position to enlighten humanity, and to fulfill one of their functions as ministers. To Catholics, administering the "Extreme Unction," or the last sacrament to the dying may be considered vital. But to the metaphysician, much more is required to guide the soul through the dying process. With the appropriate knowledge and occult ability, the metaphysician may assist souls in making a more meaningful transition. Deathbed-rites of an occult formula and design, taking the bardo into consideration, are needed by those engaged in the metaphysical field.

The importance and purpose of life should be appended and stressed in those rites as a lesson not only for the departed, but for those who are left behind. An experience of a loss of a beloved one through the portals of death on the part of grieving and confused individuals should be looked upon by metaphysicians as opportunities for the sowing of the seeds of truth into their receptive consciousness. Metaphysicians as farmers in the vineyard of truth should play their part perfectly. By offering various truths concerning the nature of death-truths that are rational, logical, helpful and spiritually stimulating--we improve the whole image of the metaphysical ministry in the minds of the public. The more metaphysicians have to offer to the public as to occult and esoteric knowledge and as to the expressions of their high psychism, the more will the public's awareness be stirred and lifted to a higher plane of consciousness. Metaphysics as a synthesis of religious, spiritual, philosophical, and scientific truths has the capacity to offer what traditional forms of religion, science and modern philosophies are incapable of offering--that is, real help.


SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

In the Introduction of this paper we presented the purpose and the need of why this subject had to be written and discussed--of the importance of its place in the metaphysical ministry as well as its influence upon the individual and society as a whole. This purpose was again stressed in the previous chapter. In order to organize our thoughts regarding the subject, we formulated several themes that would be the basis for the structure of our paper. Our fundamental themes consisted of the following:

1) The survival of personal consciousness

2) The process of transition

3) The nature of life after so-called death

The structure of our findings and of this paper, was based upon four perspectives:

1) Religion/mythology

2) The occult tradition

3) Tibetan Buddhism

4) Parapsychology

From each perspective, we initially dealt with the basic themes from a certain point of view, but ended up with the same findings, the same conclusions, and the same cosmic truths; nevertheless, among the above perspectives, there is still much to be said about religion as a whole that has somewhat misrepresented the spiritual truths as taught by their founders. We are certain, though, that every metaphysician would research into this subject sooner or later as it is mentally and spiritually rewarding. In years to come "death" will be a time of celebration and not a time of mourning as it is now.

Finally, in the fifth chapter, we discussed on humanity's basic psychological problem--that of senseless fear. We have seen how this fear robs man of his or her true life as a divine son or daughter of God living an abundant life in the here and now. We have also briefly discussed how the elimination of the fear of death would transform the individual and society as a whole.

To sublimate and transcend this fear condition that overwhelms society we suggest that additional research be conducted into along the lines of soul-investigation, and into the many other principles of the bardo process not discussed or discovered by Tibetan Lamas. Ways of researching into this should be conducted in a scientific and intuitive manner, though this may not always be through conventional methods. Researchers should not fear probing into the invisible, into the immaterial, or into the abstract. Through research within a single avenue, other possibilities will present themselves. An answer to a single question begets many more questions, ad infinity; thus humanity progresses.

Bibliography

Agrippa, Henry Cornelius 1995 Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, MN.

Bailey, Alice 1972 A Treatise on White Magic. Lucis Publishing Company, London.

Barrie, Donald C. 1991 You Need Not Age Nor Die! Finbarr International, Folkestone, England.

Budge, E.A. Wallis (Trans) 1953 Book of the Dead, The. Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd. London.

Chaney, Earlyne 1989 Mystery of Death and Dying, The. Samuel Weiser, York Beach, Maine.

Currie, Ian 1995 You Cannot Die. Element Books Ltd, Dorset, England.

Drolma, Delog Dawa 1995 Delog: Journey to Realms Beyond Death. Padma Publishing, Junction City, CA.

Evans-Wentz, W.Y. (ed) 1975 Tibetan Book of the Dead, The. Oxford University Press, England.

Lauf, Detlief Ingo 1989Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Books of the Dead. Shambhala Publications, Inc., Dorset, England.

Liverziani, Filipo 1991 Life, Death & Consciousness. Prism Press, Dorset, England.

Lodo, Lama 1987Bardo Teachings: The Way of Death and Rebirth, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York.

Ma`sumian, Farnaz 1995 Life After Death. Oneworld Publications, Oxford, England.

Newton, Michael 1995 Journey of Souls. Llewellyn Publications, Minnesota.

Poe. Lori M. 1995 Journeys to Worlds Beyond. The Place of Light Publisher, Cincinatti, Ohio.

Ramacharaka, Yogi (Year not given) Life Beyond Death, The. Yogi Publication Society, Chicago, ILL.

Rinpoche, Bokar 1993 Death and the Art of Dying, Clearpoint Press, San Francisco, CA.

Rinpoche, Chokyi Nyima 1991 Bardo Guidebook, The. Ranjung Yeshe Publications, Hong Kong.

Saraydarian, Torkom 1993 Science of Meditation, The. Aquarian Educational Group, Sedona, Arizona.

-- 1983 Cosmos in Man. Aquarian Educational Group, Sedona, Arizona

Swedenborg, Emanuel 1958 Heaven and its Wonders and Hell. The Swedenborg Society, London.

Copyright © 2006 Luxamore

Unheard and Unseen: The Plight of America's Homeless Poor

With the rare exception of a special report produced by educational television channels and shown sandwiched between reruns late at night, we seldom see the faces of America's enormous homeless population. They live their street lives in decaying downtowns and slum districts, hidden from our daily commute between work and the suburbs.

I live in the Los Angeles County section of Southern California. Within my one county are more than 90,000 people who have nowhere to call home. Like most of my neighbors, I never use public transportation or visit the poorer areas. Unless I make a special effort, I never see the thousands on the sidewalks.

It is only when disaster strikes a poor area that the country sees the face of poverty. After Andrew in southern Florida and Katrina on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, the omnipresent television cameras caught a glimpse of what it is like to be poor in America. We saw the faces of the forgotten lined up in the Superdome and had to admit that the national dream of success and a comfortable lifestyle does not extend to everyone.

There are those who believe that the poor bring on their own misery. That anyone with any motivation would be able to work themselves out of the mess. Certainly there are thousands of homeless who have drifted away from the larger society because of drugs or mental illness, the have-nots who fail to qualify for the treatment and rehabilitation programs established for the more fortunate.

Many thousand more are simply victims of domestic violence, illness, structural unemployment, or a series of events that devastated their former working or middle class lives. Many thousands are simply the working poor. Lacking skills and contacts, they trudge daily to minimum wage, low level positions: motel maid, security guard, custodian, waitress, or day labor. The minimum wage is a social farce for a single individual, never mind someone with children or family to support.

Can Congress or the Administration explain how someone clearing less than $200 per week can feed and clothe themselves and their family and yet set aside enough money for even the cheapest apartment? Can the finest financial minds in the country calculate how to pay first and last month rent and a security deposit when there are only pennies left at the end of the week?

Yet President Bush moved to suspend the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act for the rebuilding of New Orleans. Is it his theory that the poor don't deserve the protection of prevailing wages so he can use that money to protect them from terrorism?

The poor and the homeless don't even think about a bomber at an airport or what's happening in the Middle East. They have more pressing concerns such as where is their next meal coming from, how can they educate their children, and where would be the safest place to spend the night.

And the oil companies, with their already obscene profits, get a tax break.

Where are we heading, folks?

One Day In A Central Asian School For Children With Special Needs

While working on a student practical task in one of the Universities of Asia, in Department of Psychology, I had an opportunity to visit a boarding school for children with chronic psychic illnesses or underdevelopment. That was an unforgettable experience. The boarding school was an old ugly building on outskirts of a big city, behind a ravine, and very difficult to find without a guide. Our group of students, walked there for about 40 minutes, and eventually we found the high fence and gray building behind it.

We were asked to put on white doctor smocks, and after that we entered the building. First thing that shocked us, was very unpleasant smell inside the school, we met the director and she told us that unfortunately the amount of ill children had increased and it had been very difficult to find any donations or financial support for school. She asked us to bring old clothes if we could, because school could not support everybody and most parents just do not want to know and take care about their children. Some parents visit children ones or twice a year, and these children are considered lucky.

Then we were led to the girls’ part of the boarding school. There were girls of different ages, and as young specialists in the field of psychology we were surprised that there were children with different levels of underdevelopment in one single group. Some of them had only some chronic illnesses without mental disorders, but they were treated like mentally ill patients! The day schedule was the same for them everyday - they were sitting all in one room, all together about 35-40 children, or they had small walks around the building. I must admit that we had tears in our eyes, because it resembled a prison for little criminals.

These girls tried to hug us and we understood that they are in great need of love and attention. They were telling us that their parents would take them home soon. Some of older girls already had menstrual periods and they didn’t know what to do. Workers’ salary in this school is very low and there is no enough personal and nurses to help every child.

In the boys’ section of the school we saw very similar sad picture. About 35-40 children were sitting in one room with walls and chairs only. Some of the children had become degraded in those conditions.
Having had finished our practice most of us confessed, that during several days after the boarding school visit, they were seeing those children in their dreams at night while sleeping. That was a real shock for us. Most of us could not eat and sleep. Some of the students brought clothes and toys to that school.

This boarding school and other similar places are a very sad unknown side of the otherwise beautiful country and friendly people. Here in the United States, I have a huge wish and hope to find donations and support for the boarding school I visited 2 years ago.

Katrina: Victims For Life?

There can be no debate about the horror of the World Trade Center attack. No conceivable rational excuse for the criminal destruction of spectacular buildings and thousands of innocent lives can be advanced. It was monstrous; it was deadly; it was immoral.

Four years later, the survivors still mourn their loved ones and the world looks to ground zero as the crucial moment when American innocence died. Somehow, the families of those who perished moved on. Several thousand Federal dollars in compensation did not take away the pain but did enable dreams of a life still worth living.

Only after the settlements were made were the cries of the families in Oklahoma heard. Those families, too, suffered a terrible loss but received only speeches and sympathy.

And now there are the victims of Katrina. Not only were hundreds of family members lost but, in addition, entire businesses, lifestyles, community bonds, and the independence conferred by gainful employment were entirely obliterated. We must ask ourselves: do we deal with victims in an evenhanded manner?

The financial safety nets of insurance, high pre-trauma earnings, and safety member retirement systems, were already in place in New York. The financial largesse of the government provided an even larger buffer against the slings and arrows of outrageous misfortune.

Most of Katrina's victims lived their lives without a single tattered safety net in place. Poor, unskilled, and underemployed, many of these Gulf Coast residents barely stayed afloat even before the flood waters raged in. Now what little they had is gone. They cannot bury their dead and get on with life as the 911 families managed to do - because there is no life left.

The political think tanks that worry if a nominee is conservative enough, the lobbyists busily grabbing the largest slice of pork for their clients, and the Haliburtons, the Fluors, and the oil magnates have no emotional conception of the reality of poverty. While difficulty in paying the bills is common at all economic levels, contrast that with someone who has no bills because they have nothing: no debts, no creditors - but also no money, no food, no home, no resources.

For those still living in shelters or staying at a hotel until the vouchers run out this month - where are the federal dollars to help them move on? The government can't even figure out how to get generators to hospitals nor trailer homes to available land.

After the photo-ops, the dramatic flyovers, and the congressional appropriation bills, our leaders will go home to their comfortable beds with easy consciences, confident that they have done what was needed. Years from now, the victims will still be suffering as are those who were displaced long ago by Hurricane Andrew.

Unless they are lucky enough to become the swing vote in a tight election, they will recede from the front pages and slowly submerge beneath the slime of poverty, a more permanent threat than any temporary storm.

Why we Need to Take Risks

It does not matter if you are a Doctor, a Lawyer or an infantry soldier in the Army if you want to be the best and get ahead, you will need to take risks.

A doctor may have to take risks when working with a patient. The Doctor may have to experiment with different forms of medications or new surgical procedures when all else has failed in an attempt to help the patient.

A lawyer may have to argue a case in an unorthodox manner to win the case, but if the lawyer wants to become the top lawyer and make millions of dollars fighting high profile cases lots of risks have to be taken.

A soldier may have to take a risk and run thru gunfire to save another injured soldier, to complete their mission, or just to secure an area from being overrun by enemy troops, after going days with little to no sleep, but if a soldier wants to get promotions and eventually lead men into battle they also need to take risks.

These risks are not unlike someone looking to get rich in a casino, they have to be willing to risk everything they have to get that million dollar payoff. If you play it safe in a casino you may get lucky and win a big jackpot on the slot machines, but if you want to make millions you are going to have to play games such as Poker, Blackjack, Roulette and Craps . These are the games that with some skill, some luck and a lot of risk taking you can retire off your winnings.

The same can be said about life in general. No one gets ahead in life from playing it safe. You will not meet your special someone if you are too afraid to risk getting rejected by someone, you will never get that big promotion unless you take risks at your job.

It is very important to continue to take risks in life. To stop taking risks means to stand still in life. Standing still in life is one of the main causes of depression. These are usually the people afraid to confront the boss and tell him that they demand a raise; they are the ones that allow life to pass them by out of fear. The entire purpose of fear is to stop you from taking a risk.

Fear is nothing more then the unknown. If you have always wanted to quit your job and open a shop but you are too afraid to do it, this is because you are afraid of failing and risking what you already have.

It is important to learn to take risks in life if you want to be happy, you may not always get the things you risked for, but you will know that you tried, and in the end it does not matter in my opinion if you succeed or not it is how many risks you try to make that is the real test of how successful you are.

Just remember if no one took risks we would be a world without flight and probably no automotive vehicles at all, maybe we would have no electricity. So risk truly is needed to improve the world.

How Horoscopes Help you Win

Many people believe that by using astrology you can tell your future, and maybe it can not, but by following the advice given in Horoscopes many people find great luck, so how else can it be explained.

This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that if you believe it is true that you will have good luck on a certain day you probably will.

This does not mean that the prediction was right, but if you believe good things are going to happen to you at work, in your personal life or in a casino, you will give off a positive energy that attracts other positive energies and this will help good things happen.

Some people do not believe this theory either. They feel that if you believe good things are going to happen and they do it is because you were in a better mood and making better decisions which will bring about better results.

No one can tell how exactly gambling horoscopes help a person win in a casino, but the fact remains that they do help people win all the time.

Studies have been done to try to show exactly how horoscopes work, but no one has ever been able to come up with an explanation that seems believable. All they have been able to show is that the more you believe the better and more accurate the predictions will be.

This may be because if you really believe in the accuracy of the gambling Horoscope you will find things that you rationalize to make fit into the horoscopes prediction.

No one has ever been able to find any reason any form of prognosticating works, but people do believe in it and it is that belief in it that seems to make the things come true.

Studies have been done in the past and have proven beyond doubt that a person who has a more positive outlook will tend to have better luck and will generally be a happier person; where as a person with a negative outlook will constantly have negative events take place around them.

The only explanation scientists have ever given for this is to say that the average human only uses 10% of the brain and that the explanation for these events is hidden in the 90% of the brain we do not use, and that maybe if and when we learn the secrete for unlocking these areas of the brain we will then be able to get a better understanding of how all types of psychic predictions work.

But until then all I can tell you is that if you believe that the prediction will come true then it will come true.

By reading your horoscope and waiting until it says you will have a good day, then going to the casino to do some gambling you will greatly increase your chances of having a winning day and the more you believe it will happen the more it increases your chances of being successful.

Maybe We Need An Occasional Disaster!

The suffering and trauma left in the wake of last year's tsunami in Southeast Asia, our own hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, the earthquake in Kashmir, and the mud slides of Central America, cannot be ignored. But none of these were man-made acts that we can attempt to eradicate, like terrorism or the brutality of tyrants.

These were natural events -- cataclysmic to be sure, but an expected by-product of life on an ever-changing and unstable planet. We can certainly improve on our ability to prepare for them, and the speed and intensity of our response to the victims, but for all our brainpower and technological sophistication, we cannot prevent their occurrence.

To emotionally cope with their aftermath, we can reframe the tragedy of events by a focus on how disasters can bring out the best in our often flawed human race.

We can look to conservative, white-only Texas towns that opened their arms, and their hearts, to poverty-stricken African Americans fleeing the floods of New Orleans.

We can stand astonished but proud at the gifts of food and shelter and support that the semi-hippies of the Rainbow Coalition brought to stricken right-wing citizens in small Mississippi towns.

We can look around a football stadium where donors stood in line to give whatever they could.

We can bow our heads in awe before the families who opened up their homes to those who had nothing left.

We can salute the volunteers who took food, water, blankets and generators to devastated areas, moving faster and with more commitment than the reluctant minions of the Federal Government.

We all lead lives rife with potentialities. It takes certain conditions, combined with inner decisions, to convert them into realities. The best of us, staring destruction, anguish, and utter desolation in the face, rise to the occasion. From banal, self-centered, unremarkable lives, we seize the chance to become more than we have been, to harness our own promise, to dare the heroic.

Disasters provide us with unique opportunities. It is not that we wish anyone pain but suffering is part of life. When it happens, it brings darkness to its victims but also the chance for fellow men to kindle a new and brighter light that enriches our species, our spirits, and our future.

What Al Qaeda Will Never Understand About The Katrina Disaster

There are rumors that Bin Laden and his minions are sitting around laughing at the spectacle of the mighty United States bungling the relief efforts for the Gulf Coast. It is certainly ironic, and would be laughable if not for the tragedy it caused, that for disasters anywhere in the world, cargo planes laden with relief supplies are in the air in a matter of hours and ships change course instantaneously to bring aid and comfort, yet it takes us more than a week to reach our own victims.

The terrorists will never see, nor ever comprehend, the real story. They have no interest in individual heroic efforts in the face of total chaos. They pay no attention to the thousands of families who are opening their homes, and their hearts, to the dazed, the poor, the dispossessed.

They chortle at destruction, whether caused by nature or their own design. But they cannot fathom the people who dig themselves out and get on with their lives: the flood victims who find a dry haven and go out to find a job; the subway riders who return to work the following day on a different train; the financial workers who move into new quarters and return to their duties; the families who grow in strength because of the horror they have endured.

The terrorists believe that America is powerful because of its military, its technology, and its wealth. They will never understand that the West’s power is in its people. They see a politically divided nation but are blind to its unity and cohesiveness as a community. They fail to appreciate that in the face of catastrophe, all Britons are Londoners, and all Americans call New Orleans home.

The anarchists’ subjugation of individual importance to their overriding cause, and their misinterpretation of religious fervor, has forever blurred their vision, concealing the rugged, optimistic, and unfailingly generous individualism that created and maintains the America we know.

And because they don’t understand us, they’ll keep on heaping terror on us, never realizing that they cannot, ever, win.

Is The End Near?

During the past year, hundreds of thousands have perished at the hands of a mother nature run amok. Tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, and torrential rains have served us notice that for all our brilliant achievements, we are not masters of the earth.

Those who adhere to the prophecies of the past suggest that the cataclysm of world destruction is coming, that the rapture is at hand, the end is near.

Certainly, the recent natural disasters have been extreme, eclipsing anything in living memory, but do they signify a terrible end?

The human race is now enormous, exceeding by a thousand percent the world inhabitants of the not-too-distant past. Communication is instantaneous: a boulder falls on a house and a picture is flashed around the world before the dust settles.

Consider the news in historical context, a far vaster landscape than human memory. And consider that until 100 years ago, news of events traveled slowly, if at all.

The earthquake in Kashmir claimed perhaps 40,000 valuable lives out of a planetary population of 6.4 billion souls. An earthquake in Shaanxi, China in 1556 claimed over 800,000 lives out of a contemporary population of only a few million, most of them totally unaware of the disaster.

The horrors of AIDS and the looming threat of 'flu pandemics may kill a few million of us. In 1347-1350, the Black Death wiped out over a third of Europe's population and it took 400 years to grow back to its former level. There were no news flashes or video coverage, just the word of straggling strangers of the terrors they had seen.

Think of the Ice Ages that have periodically crept across the earth's surface, wiping out hundred of species each time and forever leaving the mark of their ravages on the continents. Envision an enormous meteor crashing into our planet, leaving a killing residue of dust that blotted out the sun's rays for decades, destroying the dinosaurs that had dominated the landscape for 100,000 years of endless summer.

Our spaceship earth is a living, breathing and highly unstable vessel. It explodes, erupts, and trembles on its own timetable, far removed from the brief memories of mankind.

The forces of nature are doing what they have always done. There are just so many more of us to get in the way and so many more to bear witness to the recurring catastrophes.