A Letter to Neale

Dear Neale,

I am hoping the current issues in the news will compel you to address one of the basic ideas our country was founded on, the right to bear arms.  It seems there aren't many people 'on the fence' regarding this issue.  I am personally a pacifist, yet I don't have a solution to the problem of how to defend yourself against those with guns, without guns.  Ever been to 'neutral' Switzerland ?  Neutral by force, yet they are not killing each other in the streets.  What's the difference? Jesus said turn the other cheek. Where would that get us?  Occupied? 

I grew up in a household with guns.  My father lived through the depression and his mother's motto was, if you can kill it, I can cook it.  It was a matter of eating or going hungry.  I was taught to shoot and respect guns at a young age, although always a little fearful, I was mostly uninterested.  My father felt very strongly about the right to own guns, for hunting as well as protection (he fought in WWII).  He was a member of the NRA.  I know there are millions like him.  I understand both sides of the issue, but do not see a solution to the problem that we are facing in the U.S.    What are your thoughts?  'Abraham's' thought is that there always was war, and there always will be, just don't make it a part of your experience.  That is the way I thought I was handling it, and yet it has become part of my experience.  Given my belief system (thank you Dad and world), it isn't surprising. (Changing my belief system is about the hardest thing I have ever attempted.  Beliefs are embedded in every single thought!  Wow!). 

I would love to hear your thoughts.  Do we need the right to bear arms?  Has it just gone too far?  Should the constitution read:  the right to bear hunting rifles and stun guns?

With a joyous heart,

Lori 

Neale Responds

Dear Lori...

There are only two reasons to have a gun in one's hands: to defend or to attack. Both reasons are correctly seen as obsolete once you have set off on a spiritual path. For the spiritual path takes you to an experience of Who You Really Are, and when you have had this experience -- if only for a moment -- defense becomes unnecessary and attack becomes unthinkable.

One argument of gun owners is that guns are needed to hunt. Yet it is not necessary to kill other animals in order to eat. Another argument of gun owners is that guns are needed to defend one 's self. Yet defense is never necessary when being attacked can take nothing from you that you want or need. The Master is one who neither wants nor needs anything, so defense become pointless.

Let me give you an example. Byron Katie is the author of the extraordinary volume, Loving What Is. In one of her later books Byron tells the story of being mugged. A man approached her, stuck a gun in her belly, and said he was going to kill her. Byron looked at the man and said, "I wish you wouldn't do that." The man replied coarsely that he had to, he had no choice, to which Byron replied, "In that case, thank you for doing the best that you can."

The mugger blinked twice, tilted his head as a dog does to make sure he has heard what he's heard,   blinked again, stowed his gun, turned and walked away, shaking his head.

Conversations with God says that all fear is ultimately a fear of death. When you do not fear death, you do not fear life. If you think that death is the end of life, you will fear living, especially if you think you can lose your life. If you are clear that death is not an end, but the beginning of something quite extraordinary, you will not fear the path that takes you there, however it takes you.

This is all that life is. Life is a pathway to death. When you understand this, and understand why you are taking this path, you begin to understand life itself, and are no longer afraid of losing it, for you realize that this is something you cannot do. Life is a journey of the soul, having nothing to do with the physical body. The body is something you have, not something you are. It is a tool used by the soul in the never-ending process of the recreation and experiencing of the Self.

A gun is a weapon. No matter how you slice it, no matter how you parse it, no matter how you look at it or try to explain it, a gun is a weapon. Spiritual masters do not require weapons for any reason.

The owning of a weapon is the disowning of the Self. It is an announcement that you have rejected Who You Really Are. You have no reason to own or use a weapon of any kind unless you have abandoned your true identity.

I hope, Lori, that this response has been helpful to you.

Love,