Violence will only increase the cycle of violence

The Dalai Lama's letter to the
President of the United States of America:

Your Excellency,

I am deeply shocked by the terrorist attacks that took place involving four apparently hijacked aircrafts and the immense devastation these caused. It is a terrible tragedy that so many innocent
lives have been lost and it seems unbelievable that anyone would choose to target the World TradeCenter in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. We are deeply saddened.
On behalf of the Tibetan people I would like to convey our deepest condolence and solidarity with the
American people during this painful time. Our prayers go out to the many who have lost their lives,
those who have been injured and the many more who have been traumatized by this senseless act of violence. I am at tending a special prayer for the United States and it's people at our main temple today.

I am confident that the United States as a great and powerful nation will be able to overcome this present tragedy. The American people have shown their resilience, courage and determination
when faced with such difficult and sad situation.

It may seem presumptuous on my part, but I personally believe we need to think seriously whether a violent action is the right thing to do and in the greater interest of the nation and people in the long run. I believe violence will only increase the cycle of violence. But how do we deal with hatred and anger, which are often the root causes of such senseless violence? This is a very difficult question, especially when it concerns a nation and we have certain fixed conceptions of how to deal with such attacks. I am sure that you will make the right decision.

With my prayers and good wishes

The Dalai Lama

September 12, 2001
Dharamsala, India

We vroegen Jan van Delden om te reageren op
De Ramp in de Verenigde Staten
en hoe hij er als 'toeschouwer' mee omgaat:

Zolang er nog object-subject denken is, is er Ajax-Feijenoord, goed-slecht enzovoort en dat maakt het onmogelijk om tot eenheid te komen. Zie dat beide uit de eerste oorzaak bestaan. Zo wordt het verstrikt raken in één kant van de zaak gepasseerd en blijft het overzicht helder. Eerst moet het denken en voelen gepasseerd worden.
Er valt dus niets zinnigs over dit onderwerp te zeggen; het gaat wel weer over als `goed' zich verliest in het bestrijden van`slecht' door zelf slecht te zijn en zo zijn natuurlijke yin-yang herstelt. Blijf verre van de `waarom'-vraag. In het NU blijven is het ware antwoord op alles.

Strikt genomen ben ik geen `toeschouwer van een wereld'. He ene 'er-zijn' heeft geen object-subject om van subject naar object te kunnen gluren. Het laatste zien is dat er geen object en dus ook geen subject kan zijn. Er is alleen kennendheid zelf; ik ben wat ik ben.
Er is wel leven, maar niets of niemand er in. Ik ben het ervaren zelf, zonder meer of minder. Je aandacht gericht houden op het ene, op de stilte, enzvoort, helpt om voorbij te gaan aan de objecten en de aandacht los te zien van de objecten. Daarna leer je de stilte en de rust die dan ontstaat tezien als je basis en zo leer je behappen dat er geen wereld is.

Probeer anderen niet te helpen zolang je nog niet helemaal Thuis bent.
Daarna help je door te zien dat er niets en niemand is die geholpen
hoeft te worden, omdat er niets anders is dan de allesomvattende 'er-zijn'heid.

Jan van Delden

---

What really happened - Byron Katie

God
God (terrorists) flies into God (WTC, Pentagon)
God (victims) dies, God lives (those who 'miracously' escaped)
God (Americans, Western people) cries, God (Palestinians) dances in the street
God (Bush) attacks God (Bin Laden and others, many others)
God (Afghanistan) bombards God (India, Pakistan)
God (?people) dies, God lives
God

(you can replace God bij Life/Love)

Rest In Peace
by Thich Nhat Hanh

I am a World Trade Center tower, standing tall in the clear blue sky,
feeling a violent blow in my side,
and I am a towering inferno of pain and suffering imploding upon myself
and collapsing to the ground.
May I rest in peace.

I am a terrified passenger on a hijacked airplane
not knowing where we are going
or that I am riding on fuel tanks that will be instruments of death,
and I am a worker arriving at my office
not knowing that in just a moment my future will be obliterated.
May I rest in peace.

I am a pigeon in the plaza between the two towers eating crumbs
from someone's breakfast when fire rains down on me from the skies,
and I am a bed of flowers admired daily by thousands of tourists
now buried under five stories of rubble.
May I rest in peace.

I am a firefighter sent into dark corridors of smoke and debris
on a mission of mercy only to have it collapse around me,
and I am a rescue worker risking my life to save lives
who is very aware that I may not make it out alive.
May I rest in peace.

I am a survivor who has fled down the stairs and out of the building to
safety
who knows that nothing will ever be the same in my soul again,
and I am a doctor in a hospital treating patients burned from head to
toe who knows that these horrible images will remain in my mind forever.
May I know peace.

I am a tourist in Times Square looking up at the giant TV screens
thinking I'm seeing a disaster movie as I watch the Twin Towers crash
to the ground,
and I am a New York woman sending e-mails to friends and family
letting them know that I am safe.
May I know peace.

I am a piece of paper that was on someone's desk this morning
and now I'm debris scattered by the wind across lower Manhattan,
and I am a stone in the graveyard at Trinity Church
covered with soot from the buildings that once stood proudly above me,
death meeting death.
May I rest in peace.

I am a dog sniffing in the rubble for signs of life,
doing my best to be of service,
and I am a blood donor waiting in line
to make a simple but very needed contribution for the victims.
May I know peace.

I am a resident in an apartment in downtown New York
who has been forced to evacuate my home,
and I am a resident in an apartment uptown
who has walked 100 blocks home in a stream of other refugees.
May I know peace.

I am a family member who has just learned
that someone I love has died,
and I am a pastor who must comfort someone
who has suffered a heart-breaking loss.
May I know peace.

I am a loyal American who feels violated
and vows to stand behind any military action it takes
to wipe terrorists off the face of the earth,
and I am a loyal Arab American who feels violated
and worries that people who look and sound like me
are all going to be blamed for this tragedy.
May I know peace.

I am a frightened city dweller who wonders
whether I'll ever feel safe in a skyscraper again,
and I am a pilot who wonders
whether there will ever be a way to make the skies truly safe.
May I know peace.

I am the owner of a small store with five employees
that has been put out of business by this tragedy,
and I am an executive in a multinational corporation
who is concerned about the cost of doing business
in a terrorized world.
May I know peace.

I am a visitor to New York City who purchases postcards
of the World Trade Center Twin Towers that are no more,
and I am a television reporter
trying to put into words the terrible things I have seen.
May I know peace.

I am a boy in New Jersey
waiting for a father who will never come home,
and I am a boy in a faraway country
rejoicing in the streets of my village
because someone has hurt the hated Americans.
May I know peace.

I am a general talking into the microphones
about how we must stop the terrorist cowards
who have perpetrated this heinous crime,
and I am an intelligence officer trying to discern
how such a thing could have happened on American soil,
and I am a city official trying to find ways
to alleviate the suffering of my people.
May I know peace.

I am a terrorist whose hatred for America knows no limit
and I am willing to die to prove it,
and I am a terrorist sympathizer standing
with all the enemies of American capitalism and imperialism,
and I am a master strategist for a terrorist group
who planned this abomination.
My heart is not yet capable of openness, tolerance, and loving.
May I know peace.

I am a citizen of the world glued to my television set,
fighting back my rage and despair at these horrible events,
and I am a person of faith struggling to forgive the unforgivable,
praying for the consolation of those who have lost loved ones,
calling upon the merciful beneficence
of God / Yahweh / Allah / Spirit / Higher Power.
May I know peace.

I am a child of God who believes that we are all children of God
and we are all part of each other.
May we all know peace.

(Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk.)

Why war does nor work

THOSE responsible for the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon must be brought to justice. There are established channels for the course of justice. The greatest weapon in the US arsenal is innocence until proven guilty. Anything less than due process is an indictment of the leadership and standards by which America has pledged to lead the world. Anything less is a betrayal of the ideals for which so many innocent people have already died.
Our children ought not to grow up in a world of racial hatred and violence. They deserve better than that. And we can do better than that.

2. A military solution plays into terrorist hands.
In his comprehensive survey of terrorist activity over the past 100 years, military historian Michael Howard notes that the three main goals of terrorists have been (i) self-advertisement, (ii) to demoralize governments, and (iii) "to provoke the government into such savage acts of suppression that it forfeited public support and awoke popular and international sympathy for the revolutionary cause." The attacks of September 11th were tragic and despicable. Nothing can bring the thousands of innocent people back. However, military action on the scale imagined by the federal government compounds the crime. The rule of the gun, the trampling of civil liberties, and a regime in which arbitrary punishment and execution are condoned, makes terrorists of us all.
In the words of Martin Luther King, "Through violence you may murder a murderer, but you cannot murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you cannot establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you cannot murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that. Sources: The London Times 9/14/01. Martin Luther King, 1967; the Southern Christian Leadership Conference "Where do we go from here?

3. War can only perpetuate a cycle of violence, not end one.
One fact that has been overlooked over the past few days is that Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the attacks, received his training from the US. He was one of a number of militants trained in 1986 in guerilla warfare by the CIA to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. When the Soviet Union fell, the US cut its guerillas loose, unleashing them on a war-ravaged and starving Afghani people.
Another commonly neglected fact is that, between 1994-96 the US supported the rise of the Taliban. Funding the Taliban fit in with US efforts to isolate Iran in the region, and promised rich pickings for US oil companies wanting to bring oil-pipelines through southern Afghanistan. The current plans for a "war on terrorism amount to an inadequate attempt to treat a symptom. In order to prevent future violence, we must address the complex causes of terrorism and resentment against the US, and the role of US government foreign policy in these causes. This is our responsibility.
The two million dead from the US war in Vietnam, the one million dead as a result of US-led sanctions against Iraq, the continued US sponsorship of death squads in Latin America all point to one unavoidable lesson. Violence begets violence. There is every reason to think that a military campaign will breed more resentment toward the US, and more violence against the innocent. Ending the cycle of violence - ending it now - is the only way to avoid creating new monsters for the next generation.
Source: Chomsky et al Znet

4. Thousands more innocent people will die.
Over five thousand people died on September 11th. The scale of war envisaged by the government is guaranteed to kill more people. Innocent men, women and children are certain to be casualties of the national war on terrorism. Already one person has been killed in the US because of the racial hatred and fear that have followed the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Racial violence and harassment are on the increase. And if the war on terrorism continues in its current vein, the bloodshed at home and abroad cannot but increase.

5. War is not an effective response.
Jeanette Rankin, the first women member of Congress, who voted against World War I and World War II, once said about war, "you can no more win an earthquake. President Bush himself has said that terrorism is a new kind of war. It is far from clear that it is a war that can be won by military means. Just as with the Oklahoma City bombing, the surest way to stamp out these heinous crimes is not through more bombing, but through the course of justice.