![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/257\/2014\/06\/Beauty-of-nature-random-4884759-1280-800-300x187.jpg\" "\\"Beauty-of-nature-random-4884759-1280-800\\"")
<\/a>On the same day that thousands of members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police mourned the murder of three of their colleagues in Moncton, New Brunswick, one man was shot on the street in an upscale urban part of Vancouver, on the other side of the country.<\/p>\nMeanwhile in the United States, a couple already fleeing from their murderous rampage in Las Vegas ended their lives \u2013 and killed yet another man carrying his own concealed weapon \u2013 in a shootout at a WalMart.<\/p>\n
All on the same day. All on the same continent. In one country where guns are available virtually to everyone, and in another where guns are presumably restricted to the select few.<\/p>\n
Day after day, week after week, more people are choosing guns to solve their disputes \u2013 whether it\u2019s a dispute with individuals, the police, or society at large.<\/p>\n
A friend told me that the day after the Vancouver shooting reporters were at the site asking the question: do you feel safe?<\/p>\n
Do we? And for that matter should we?<\/p>\n
What we need right now is more than new laws, new restrictions. Those only go so far. What people really need is to be trained in seeing beauty.<\/p>\n
As the world becomes smaller, our sharing so often is not the beauty around us, but the horror. Our internet sites fill with people bent on one-upmanship, bullying and tearing each other apart. Our most popular video games and TV shows make entertainment out of murder, rape, and torture. Our political leaders continually seek new military methods to obliterate the other side, without fear of reprisal.<\/p>\n
We are awash in the ugliness that is us.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s an illusion.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m told that if that reporter had strolled only two minutes further he would have seen a man blowing gigantic bubbles into the sunlight. He would have seen dogs leaping, children playing, and seagulls diving for plenty that the ocean had to offer.<\/p>\n
Our world desperate needs to be trained in seeing beauty.\u00a0 And this is precisely what we \u2013 as religious scientists \u2013 do. We train ourselves to see beauty, love, peace, and power. We train ourselves, despite the illusions that are presented to us. And as we deepen our appreciation of beauty, our world becomes more gentle, more meaningful.<\/p>\n
Some would argue that won\u2019t change anything. But I\u2019m not here to argue. I\u2019m here to listen \u2013 to listen to how each of us as individuals can move from where we are to where we would like to be in our consciousness. How we can move from living in a world where complaining fills our minds and our mouths.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d like to hear more about joy and peace, and less about anger and resentment. I\u2019d like to witness more love, and less fear. Fear is what sets us against one another.<\/p>\n
And I know that as people learn to see and acknowledge and live from that place of beauty in their world \u2013 they create more of it. I\u2019ve seen it happen time and time again. But it takes training, it takes discipline, it takes commitment, and above all it takes faith.<\/p>\n
Beauty, love, God \u2013 call it what you will \u2013 it has the ability to expand infinitely. It raises us up and provides us with the mental space to see conflict before it befalls us. It gives us the courage to heal, and the ability and security to share our compassion with the world. Best of all \u2013 there is no shortage of it. We don\u2019t even have to create it \u2013 it is just the natural state of our being.<\/p>\n
There is good news in the world. When the reporter asked the question: do you feel safe in this neighbourhood, the man answered: yes, yes I do.<\/p>\n
That at least gives me some modicum of assurance we are on the right path.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On the same day that thousands of members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police mourned the murder of three of their colleagues in Moncton, New Brunswick, one man was shot on the street in an upscale urban part of Vancouver, on the other side of the country. Meanwhile in the United States, a couple already […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[255,6,48,61,258,256,230,257],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-living-2","tag-beauty","tag-centers-for-spiritual-living","tag-kenn-gordon","tag-peace","tag-peaceful-living","tag-seeing-the-beauty","tag-spiritual-principles","tag-stopping-violence"],"yoast_head":"\n
Let the Killing Stop<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On the same day that thousands of members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police mourned the murder of three of their colleagues in Moncton, New Brunswick,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/2014\/06\/let-the-killing-stop\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let the Killing Stop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the same day that thousands of members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police mourned the murder of three of their colleagues in Moncton, New Brunswick,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theprinciplesofspiritualliving\/2014\/06\/let-the-killing-stop\/\" 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"\\"Beauty-of-nature-random-4884759-1280-800\\"")
<\/a>On the same day that thousands of members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police mourned the murder of three of their colleagues in Moncton, New Brunswick, one man was shot on the street in an upscale urban part of Vancouver, on the other side of the country.<\/p>\n