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What We Know From Cancer Research and How to Approach ISIS

Published on 19/11/15
by randy

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Traditional cancer therapies used a ‘good vs. evil’ approach with radiation and chemotherapies aimed to destroy mutated cells. The cancer cell is much like the suicide bomber. It will feed on the destruction of healthy cells, knowing full well it’s behavior will kill the whole organism. Oftentimes, when we attack mutated cells we only strengthen their desire to feed. We have seen how the benefit of killing a hundred terrorists is lost when we accidentally kill an innocent healthy cell in the process, what we’ve called collateral damage.

New science recognizes the value in training healthy cells to fight mutated cells (immunotherapies) and the value in cutting off food supply to mutated cells. As we look at the history of ISIS and other radical cells whose goal is to destroy the organism, we can see how our attacks only serve to strengthen them. We have a military industrial complex that’s fed billions of dollars to convince us they can do something about these mutations. We have politicians and media stressing the global organism with fear and loss of hope, weakening the healthy cells. We have ideologues who want to punish the very cells (kind, loving Muslims) that would be most instrumental in creating the ‘immune’ response needed to starve the cell. So how can we use biology and spirituality to transform/kill ISIS and other radical mutated cells?

The mutated cell lives under the premise it’s not connected to the whole organism. The fundamentalist has rigidly attached to a thought it’s willing to kill for, having some notion of payoff. True spirituality knows the mystery is far too big to ever absolutely know what the future holds. It values the precious gift of life and seeks to not cause harm, working in harmony with all it encounters. The body works this way as well. The body seeks homeostasis, a sense of balance where everything works for the benefit of all. Holding firmly to a ‘belief’ that we’re willing to harm others for is a mutation. We can always go deeper in our understanding. Even those who are deeply religious must hold a sense of wonder and awe at the unknown. It’s why some have said the opposite of faith isn’t doubt, it’s certainty. When we ‘think’ we have absolute answers we’re dangerous to others. ISIS and other mutated cells have been conned into believing they’ll be rewarded for being a martyr of the ‘cause’. Others try to con us into believing that killing from fear and anger will end these mutations. Our awareness of new cancer research and the mandates from ancient spiritual teachers inform us to not harm unless from love, in recognition that the mutation is us. As we go deeper in understanding what motivates and feeds the cell we can create a much stronger impact.

Recently, the PBS show Frontline did a show going inside an ISIS community. The adults were indoctrinating the children in the belief (held thought) of jihad. They were being trained to believe khalifah – the civil and religious leader of a Muslim state considered to be a representative of Allah on earth. Many radical Muslims believe a Khalifah will unite all Islamic lands and people and subjugate the rest of the world. This mutation of Islam has children being trained in weaponry and suicide bombing. Every bomb strike and terrorist killed serves to strengthen their conviction. The adults were joining ISIS motivated by a $700/month wage, a strong financial incentive to sign up. Joining the strength of commitment from revenge, the promise of a divine purpose and eternal reward, a sense of gang belonging and financial reward, we’ve got the perfect recipe for war that goes even further than Hitler’s con game. The organism (the global community) that wants to kill this mutation has to undermine the belief and confidence the mutant has in the story it’s been told. So how do we stop the food that’s nourishing the mutant cell?

We have to break the belief system. It’s going to the core of breaking the closed mind, opening up doubt. How many soldiers would continue to fight without financial benefit to their family? How many would continue to martyr themselves if they lost certainty in the ‘thought’ of what happens when we die? Can we offer the mutated cell a possibility of continued living through transformation? The word Islam means peace. The very thought of killing the whole organism for the benefit of a few is the antithesis of this. The Muslim community is over one and a half billion. The full strength of this faith community must join for the health of the global organism, doing whatever it can to cut funding to the mutated cells, to educate the children of the mutated cells, and create doubt in the fairy tales being told. The full strength of the global community must go to cutting off the financial food that’s growing these mutant cells. When we’ve diminished what’s motivating and feeding them, we can better determine which cells have to die. So how to we justify this with the spiritual laws of ‘no killing’?

A couple years after 9/11 our family attended a retreat with the Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh and the Madison, WI, police force. Facing the mutant cell (terrorist) was part of the discussion. When asked about how to handle a suicide bomber running toward a building with a thousand people in it, given he had a gun to shoot the terrorist, the great leader of peace and harmony said, “I’d shoot him”. The crowd gasped. He then went on to explain his alignment to that action. It came from his connection with the bomber. His split second answer came from compassion for the suffering of the mutant cell. Given his experience of meeting the suffering of the terrorist, he had full confidence in killing him/her to reduce the negative karma accumulated from such a dreadful action. How we face the mutant cell, what motivates us, is what this spiritual journey is about. When we’ve broken the illusion of our separateness, touched our interdependence with one another, we can move to killing from love rather than fear.

This precious moment is a beautiful moment. Even in tragedy, beauty is asking to be seen. The love Thich Nhat Hanh had for the terrorist was palpable. He evidenced a spiritual security from years of dedicated practice in traversing the mystery, wonder and awe of ‘I don’t know land’. I am far from that place and it’s one reason I doubt I’ll ever own a gun. I would always hope I could hold my center, move closer to the mind of a cell aimed to hurt me, seeking understanding with faith in a less harmful action. When we see how violence robs opportunity, how our actions of harm impact the whole organism, and how the mystery is far bigger than we’ll ever know, sometimes the mutant cell transforms. If not, we sometimes have no alternative but to kill from love.

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