The Desire for Vengeance: Hard Truths About Transformation

Photo by Gayle Lindgren

Unfairness. Vengeance. Retaliation. Justice.

Recently, I came face-to-face with these emotions, and I found myself in a spiral of repetitive thoughts. In the big picture, the triggering events were not that terrible, but in the process of working through my reaction, I had a breakthrough that I want to share with you.

Wanting to “get even” is one of the most powerful emotions. A its core burns a sense of justification that can trump even the best of intentions.

If you agree, like me, that we need to change our consciousness to end war, suffering, and the selfishness that supports bad business and poverty, then we can be sure that these emotions have to be the first to go. They are at the root. Every extremist, fundamentalist, warmonger and greedy businessperson believes that what their beliefs and actions are justified. At the core, it’s self-based and survival-based.

So, how is this change possible?

Every spiritual text has divine truth if you know how to see it, and this line from the Bible came to me in a new way:

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16 (KJV)

This is viewed by many Christians as a “commercial for God.” Show people what a good Christian you are and you will convert more people. When we consider that Jesus was not a Christian, nor was he trying to convert anyone, we can see what this line really means:

Act through your highest state of consciousness so that when people see your actions and interact with you, they will recognize the universal divinity that exists even within themselves.

This is the key to effecting transformation: you must create that state within yourself, no matter what the circumstances, so that your intention resonates and awakens that state within others. To do this, you have to change your intention in your actions.

It truly clicked for me as was listening to an interview with an author named Dr. Srikumar S. Rao who tells us how to do this with each person we interact with:

“Recognize that this is a human being who is stuck in his or her predicament, and: I silently wish that person every blessing under the sun. And you do it with casual encounters like the cab driver, the person you buy a newspaper from, the waitress, the checkout cashier, and you do it with important relationships like your colleague at work, members of your work team, or whatever.

“Silently, simply say, ‘I wish you every blessing under the sun, and what can I do to be of service?’ That’s the thought phrase with which [you] enter [the interaction]. And many have reported huge–dramatic–changes in the nature of the interaction, the depth of the conversation, and the closeness of the bonds that are forged.”

– Dr. Srikumar S. Rao

[Source: Sounds True: Insights at the Edge podcast, hosted by Tami Simon.]

I can attest to the powerful results that this creates. The secret lies in the feelings that the thought-phrase invokes: “I wish you every blessing under the sun…” sets you up with sense of compassion and generosity. The second half, “what can I do to be of service?” takes you out of a “me-centered” state, and it’s like saying, “what can I bring to this experience to help you reach your highest state of consciousness?”

Every interaction with every being, no matter the circumstance, becomes an opportunity to raise the consciousness of the world.

Let your light so shine.

Related Posts

• Which Transformational Topic Excites You Most?
• The List: Hot Headlines From This Week
• The Great War
• Creating the New Consciousness
• The Great Truth