We've heard a lot of squabbling between those who favor capital punishment, or an "eye for an eye", and those who advocate "turning the other cheek." Most debates are heated, usually ending in a standoff and a lot of ruffled feathers. But look at the issue from a practical perspective, and you'll see right away what I call the "Justice Quandary". You've been attacked, wronged. You become angry, and you want revenge. How do you feel? Negative, right? So you get your revenge....you slash the person's tires, club the person with a baseball bat, shoot the person, execute the person...there are many choices. Will you be punished? I can't say. But you will pay for what you did....there is a price that has to be paid. You have manifested negative energy, a force destructive enough to cause cancer. I see this force as a destroyer of souls.....you regress spiritually when you let hatred infect your being. The rule is simple: feel good, and you are healing; feel bad, and you are disintegrating. This is one reason why some "firing squads" provided one shooter with blanks.....so those involved in the execution would not agonize over what they had done. But is this enough? This issue isn't necessarily about whether it is "right" to get revenge, indulge in hatred, or support capital punishment. It's about the fact that every action has consequences...consequences that can affect you for all eternity.....
Its like man, acting as the punisher. Feeling as the "do gooder" "justice". Thinks he has this right/power to decide on this, perform this and is somehow so righteous and powerful that it ends with him. He has rectified and harmonised the problem, he is almighty, He will control. He is the controller of the universe Why cant all of us see, this mindset has been the cause of so much pain, the pain that we're always trying to minimise
Consequences for all of eternity? Punishment? Sounds like guilt tripping to me, and many people do that not only to each other but to themselves. There are natural consequences that occur... say if you try to bend your arm backward... it starts to hurt. Are you then hurting because you're bad and guilty and deserve punishment? No, you're hurting because you attempt to do something that doesn't work. When we become disconnected from our source, from love and peace, from clarity... we then slip into insanity. From that perspective everything we do will be out of sync with WHAT WORKS... which will result in hurt. The only thing to do is to step back from the drama and reconnect with love, and then we will know what DOES WORK instead. Once we choose what works over what doesn't work we will naturally stop hurting ourselves and others. There is not past guilt or punishment that need follow us once we correct the error of our minds. There is no lasting consequence that stays with us. The only thing for us to do is correct our relationship to ourselves and to the world and relate only with love. So what of revenge? Revenge is only engaged by those that feel victimized and powerless, who think that someone had the power to take their peace away from them. And they fail to recognize that if someone acts unlovingly it is only because at that moment they themselves have forgotten love and have slipped into insanity. Revenge ain't gonna remind them of their sanity. What will remind them? Love.... only love. No one is guilty when they act unlovingly... they are only mistaken. Guilt is a made up concept and eludes to lasting damage to the soul... that's just not true. Mistakes can be corrected and that's what time is for... to offer us multiple opportunities to correct our errors and choose love once again.
I thought the firing squad thing was the opposite. One or two people had loaded weapons and the rest had blanks. So they all could reasonably assume that they didn't actually kill the person. They still do this in many ways. The lethal injection machine has two buttons. One for each person. One of the buttons works and the other doesn't (randomly decided or setup by someone not involved earlier). That way the person doesn't know if they killed the guy or not.
True, the energy of guilt isn't really all that destructive. But the destructive energy of anger and hate is manifest and damaging physically, emotionally, spiritually. Turning to Love reverses the process. But someone who dies "infected" with hate, with anger, isn't likely to progress in the next incarnation, or progress to a higher dimension...hence my statement that the effects "can" be eternal. But one can simply disagree at this point.
See, there are times where I'm for capital punishment, and there are times where I'm not... I guess it really depends on the severity of the crime. But overall, I'm a firm believer of karma, and I believe that regardless of what you do in your life, that karma has a way of giving you what you deserve. The universe has a way of balancing itself out, and reward the good folks of the world and punish the ones that needs to be punished, and all in proportion to how we each live our lives.
Think of karma, and then think of the energy we create by loving or hating, and then think of that personal field we call the aura. I think there's a definite linkage here.....
Life is give and take. We can't help but feel angry and frustrated at times. We just have to understand it's a cycle though, and allow it to run its course. Then we can learn how to channel our energy into something positive.
"an eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind" - Gandhi but that's a very hard thing to say when faced with say a paedophile who rapes and kills a small child. to face him/her with compassion is nigh on impossible...
Indeed, indeed. But you can know for sure that unless that paedophile is hopeless that he/she will be haunted by their actions until they die. And i believe longer, which brings me onto my next point. That small child will, in my view, be reborn (as a representation of energy, human or not, on this planet or not) and will learn their own lessons. No thats not a damnation of child-victims (obviously) its a suggestion that whatever we go through in these lives of ours, they are comparable to days in the years of our soul-lives if you like; the time after (heaven/hell/purgary being the christian name for it) being comparable to our nightly dreams, where the information of the 'day' is reviewed, past lessons are put into play, and we 'wake' (reincarnate) to a new day. If you believe in the field of energy surrounding everything, that we're all connected in these ways, then yes, love and compassion are great healers. It's my opinion that people who cause suffering are themselves tormented by their own 'demons' - we all know the stereotype of the lonesome postperson unleashing their anger, and we all have at least heard of the reality...things like columbine. So yes, if necessary, compassion to killers rapists and all. But they have to show the first sign - a deep and humble search within themselves, and the want to help others would be a good start, if there's any violent criminals reading
But sometimes wouldn't the compassionate thing to do be to put somebody out of their misery? So they don't have to cause any more suffering to themselves and those around them? Or, at least give them the opportunity to reflect on what they've done so they can understand what they've done wrong. And maybe in that sense they can correct the error of their ways before passing on? Better that I would think than being released back into a society which, is very likely not going to forget what you've done (whether you've changed or not), and you having to suffer with the stigma of that for the rest of your life.
The Justice Quandary shows that there are often tough choices to make. Do you risk spiritual harm to yourself to destroy an active evil agent? Perhaps there are times when you must.....perhaps.... Our justice system carries out capital punishment in a process that involves many individuals.....this can be either good or bad. If you see it as a way of lessening the guilt and negativity by making them feel part of a shared process, then it may be good. Or because it takes such a long time and involves so many individuals, the spiritual damage involved may be a thousand-fold....which would then make it bad. Which door do you choose? Hmmmmm.
It seems to me that a distinction has to be drawn between the desire of the individual victim for 'revenge' and the necessity of protecting society. I don't see that killing a criminal protects society any better than locking them up. And I can't see how carrying out collective acts of revenge can be justified.
Exactly because that negative energy is still embedded in the collective society that this person has affected, his/her crimes don't stop existing when he/she dies. Unless that energy is transferred somehow into positive, and it definately isn't by ending the life, there is no benefit in doing so, it is only supporting the longevity and potential to manifest even further of that energy. An appropriate thing to do would be to let that person correct the negative energy that they've emitted into the world.
well look at it from the opposite point of view, if a person puts good into the wolrd they dont always recieve good from the world. if person donates $100 to starving children all he gets is the feeling of knowing that he helped someone, he doesnt receive $100 dollars from the goverment. so why should a person who killed someone be killed by the government, if he kills someone he has to face the guilt of killing the person. although they should be locked up if its for public saftey. people in prison should be given the chance to make up for their crimes at least to get rid of the guilt
I look at it as karma which I strongly believe in a spiritual way. I believe what goes around comes around. For me, I feel that this is mediated by God. If you do good selfless acts you will be rewarded, if you do unrighteous acts you wil get your own punnishment. I believe we should be able to restrain those who repeatedly commit crimes, but do not have the right to judge them otherwise and feel the need for revenge. Revenge almost feels instinctual for me, but in rationalization I tell myself to "turn the other cheek" because I feel revenge is wrong. I feel that the Lord (God) makes judgements and takes revenge in his way and this is not our duty. I would instinctually protect myself from an agressor and probably resort to physical violence if it was necessary, but once the event was over I would try to forgive the other person and not want to cause any additional dammage beyond what was necessary to protect myself/family. But thats just me and my "ideology"
