From Hate to Understanding: A Journey Along the Path of Loving Kindness
My first reaction when I first saw the photo of Richard McKinny was, I don’t want to read another article about someone’s hatred toward Muslims. Being raised Jewish, albeit a very unreligious one, I have my own baggage to get through…
That momentary reaction was quickly overcome as I read the first sentence and understood that an extraordinary tale was about to be told. For the past forty years or more I have studied, practiced, and taught on the subject of Loving Kindness. Over the years I have heard many accounts of its power to transform lives, but this story will always stand out because it reveals so much about the healing power of love, forgiveness and how the authentic practice of one’s principles of faith overcomes fear and ignorance.
Richard McKinney is an ex-Marine. He is a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere. He was taught to hate Muslims as fanatical killers and he became a relentless enemy who saw them as a cancer in America and himself as the cure.
Richard lived with his wife and daughter in Muncie, Indiana far from the fields of bloodshed and war and yet he found his enemies had settled in “his town”. A Muslim boy who was going to the very school his daughter attended, was picked up by his mother who wore the full Hijab of her faith. Their very presence produced in Richard a rage and very soon a plan. Richard vowed to blow up the Muslim Mosque and if he didn’t die in the explosion, he would proudly stand trial and become a symbol for his belief, that America was for Americans and that Islam needed to be removed, eradicated. However, things did not go as Richard planned… Richard was met by an unceasing barrage of Loving Kindness.
It may have been an aspect of Richard’s training that caused him to reconnoiter his intended target, the Islamic Community Center in his hometown. He estimated that if he planted the bomb on the right day, at the right location he could kill or wound two hundred or more worshipping Muslims. As he approached the Center he was spotted by Jomo Williams, one of the members of the community. Immediately Jomo sensed that something was about to go very wrong. But the choices that he and other members of the Islamic Center made that day changed Richard, and I think they changed everything for anyone who hears their story.
Bibi Bahrami – the Mother Teresa of the Muslim Community
Members of the community literally embraced Richard. The practice of their faith guided their actions and they saw Richard not as a “Stranger at the Gate”, but as a guest, and therefore worthy of generosity, understanding and Loving Kindness.
Richard’s scouting trip was the first of many visits that put him in touch with what he really wanted, to have meaning, to be part of something greater, to experience the love of humanity, his own and that of others. How ironic that he found it among his former enemies. In the Koran there is a saying, “Save one individual and you save humanity.”
Extending the Energy of Loving Kindness
Richard’s powerful encounter with Loving Kindness does not have to be so unique, so rare. We are all capable of extending this energy to one another. Think of someone or something in your life who elicits from you your unqualified love. It may be another person, a pet, or even an abiding passion. Without reservation you give your love to that person, animal, or interest.
Now think of the object of your love, bring it from your head, into your heart as a feeling, as an energy, and as a direct experience of pure, unreserved reverence. Then shift the focus of your love from your chosen object to the feeling itself. Experience the quality of it, the indestructible and eternal nature of it.
This is your own basic goodness that you are getting in touch with. Focus that quality of love and expand it to include other people, other things, even people or things that you have had trouble accepting in the past. Rest in the spaciousness of the energy itself. As you move into your day and encounter others draw on that feeling of Loving Kindness. Radiate it out from your heart and into whatever and whoever you encounter.
Think of yourself as a spiritual lighthouse.
Think of yourself as a spiritual lighthouse and whatever your beam of loving kindness falls upon is recognized as a part of yourself. One of the basic characteristics of the energy of loving kindness is sameness. All manifest things have the same nature. Everything is a composite of matter and matter is simply energy vibrating at a particular frequency. When you think about life in that way, what is there to take exception to?
Read the CNN article where I first ran across this story or to view Richard’s remarkable, unforgettable journey play the video below:
