"Who Knows What Evil Lurks In The Hearts Of Men?"

The 1930's radio show " The Shadow " always asked that question.

Yogic thought recognizes that all of our Energies have a dark side.   We may protest that we don't have any  Violence , any  Rage , any  Despair  in our hearts.

Have you ever seen  Road Rage? Of course we don't have that kind of dark,  Shadow -side emotion ... we would never mutter under our breath when someone cuts us off in traffic ... nor would we honk our horn at them ... we don't have that dark side that escalates into  Road Rage ... 


do we?


The worst part about  Violence, and I refuse to use the term Senseless Violence, (what does that mean?!??!  Is there some kind of  Violence  that makes sense?!??!) is the way it shakes us to our foundations.   


It frightens us ... it makes us ask too many questions about ourselves. 


Well, maybe it doesn't exactly frighten us, because Fear is not only one of the  Shadow  emotions, it is the Root of all of them.  


Hmmmm ...

It sends me scurrying to my Yoga mat, hoping to chase away the Shadows  in my heart.  

I know we can’t change the world from outside ourselves.   We have to change our own hearts and reflect that change out into the world, and hope that encourages others to change their hearts and reflect that change out into the world, and so on.

In those moments when I feel Fear, I hold on to the Metta Meditation:

http://kateskinetics.blogspot.ca/2011/12/excerpt-from-metta-meditation.html

Namaste’

Kate