The above is excerpted from "Seat of the Soul." Gary Zukav is a renowned American spiritual teacher and the author of four consecutive New York Times Best Sellers. Gary now works through The Seat of the Soul Institute, which assists people across the world in creating meaning and purpose, creativity and health, joy and love.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: How do you relate to the notion that empowerment without reverence can cause us to harm life? Can you share a personal experience of a time you felt deep reverence while being unempowered? What has helped you maintain reverence toward life?
A time when I felt deep reverence for life while being unempowered was when my children were born. Exhausted & weary after 36 hrs of labor, all I could do was marvel at the infinite Grace of Life. Another was when my children, now teenagers, were angrily judging me for things they did not understand about our divorce. I could only reverently hold space for their innocence & marvel at this life standing before me. They are now in their forties & have modeled that Grace more & more as they age. When we hold Unconditional Love for All Beings at our core, the world shifts around us & returns to Source.
A few months ago I helped a small pupy(dog). It met an accident from a tempo and its leg was badly injured. people were intending to pour water on him but i stopped them. I arranged turmeric from nearby residances and applied it over the cut in the leg. Before it the dog was making lot of noise due to the pain and bleeding and after this aid it went cool and calm. Instesd of fighting with the driver, one should first aid the injured, may it be human animal or even plant.
Man has no right to harm any thing not even himself.
I work as a Large Animal Veterinarian, and my desire based with my work is to sustain life, and I do honor and respect life in all of her forms. However when an animal is suffering from an incurable disease state, injury, etc., i feel empowered with what I consider a gift of having the ability to bring an end to the animals terminal state through euthanasia. I consider this a gift to the soul in need, who would otherwise be suffering unendurable pain. There are times when I will euthanize an animal before he or she succumbs to the pain that it inevitability will have to endure. In other words, the animal is not yet suffering, but trough my actions, certain suffering is avoided.
So the question to myself and to the author: how does this relate to empowerment by your said definition?