The Cree called it "wetiko," a mind virus that infected the white man, disconnecting him from The Great Spirit, from nature, and from the beauty of themselves.
We're all infected, possessed by an evil spirit that arises in the absence of Love. Our natural state is to be "in love," to give and receive love with everyone and everything. Anything else is insanity.
Hate crimes reveal an absence of love. The infection has taken over. The parasite is controlling the host. As the comedian Flip Wilson said, but it's hardly funny now, "the devil made me do it."
What is the nature of your possession? How do you amplify this evil force in your thinking, speaking, and acting? I can only answer that question for myself but I can invite you to do the same soul searching.
Here in the age of Trump people are anxious to do something, to step up and make a difference. Here's our first and best opportunity: learn the apply the medicine each of us carries to deal with this virus. We can't eliminate it because it has spread throughout the whole of human consciousness. But we can limit it's expression.
All of us have cancer cells but only some of us are diagnosed with cancer. We live with those cells and our bodies manage them to keep us healthy. We all live with wetiko. Some of us manage it, others shoot people.
This is my call to you: Study yourself. Examine your expression. Come to understand the difference between your own thinking, speaking, and acting, and when the virus has hijacked your human system and is using it to spread itself.
All of us are infectious and we always will be. The question is, what are we spreading? Here's a simple way to check: am I bringing love? And I a caring, kind person? Am I able to face the facts of any situation, including horror, without shrinking into denial or taking refuge in spiritual platitudes? Can I stand in the fire and burn with a bright light even that what is consuming the world around me?
This is my daily practice. I'd like more company.