Tat Tvam Asi

Tat Tvam Asi. This Sanskrit sutra means “I am that.” It’s a declaration recognizing that the world is our mirror. What we see in the outer world is a reflection of our inner world.

Look into this little girl’s eyes. See and feel her fear, her pain, her terror, her heartbreak? Imagine you are her. Imagine being too young to understand what’s happening, too young to understand the politics or ideology – but old enough to be scared for your life at the sound of gunfire and seeing your classmates and teachers being shot. Imagine being her, likely traumatized for life, and too young to understand that it somehow, in some way, could have been prevented.

That’s in you. That’s in all of us. We did this to ourselves…again. We created (and maintain) a world that allows this to happen over, and over, and over.

This is on us. No matter what you tell yourself about it being some twisted soul hell-bent on hurting others. The shooter was a manifestation of our hatred, our pride, our arrogance, our insecurity, our fear, our collectively twisted consciousness that places a higher value on a tool for inflicting death than the life of a child. Don’t try to argue it away…because you can’t. And no matter how much rhetoric you throw at it, you know deep down, it’s irrefutably true. This is us.

Karma will judge us harshly. And by karma, I don’t mean fate or destiny, I simply mean the consequences of our choices. When we make choices that are selfish, ego motivated, rooted in fear and ignorance, those are the seeds we sow, and we will reap accordingly. We could be making more conscious choices, more life-affirming choices. But we aren’t. And those poor choices are made even worse by those that regurgitate some ignorant, and defeatist garbage about there being nothing we can do.

It’s not that we can’t. It’s never been that we can’t.

It’s that we won’t. Get it straight. And own it. Man up. Say it. Say you don’t care if another school gets shot up. Or another. Or another.

Don’t make it sound like this is something out of our control. It is within our control. And for all the Bible-thumping-gun-clutchers in the room, how does Matthew 25:40 land with you?

“Truly I say until you, to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.”

Let me translate what that means for you: it means that you’re willing to treat Christ the way you treat our children…like cannon fodder.

…probably too much cognitive dissonance, I imagine.

Tat Tvam Asi. I am that. The world is our mirror. If you don’t like what you see, if you it does no good to blame the mirror.

We are to blame, and nothing will change until we wake up from our ignorance.