It has indeed been a long time since writing anything here. It doesn't mean I haven't been reflecting, however.

Today is Good Friday.

I am often enlivened on Good Friday. Enlivened by the collective movement inward. It is a day when things become very quiet, at least in many predominantly Christian countries. Here in Zurich (and all of Switzerland for that matter), it is a full holiday or, probably better said, holy day. Almost all stores and businesses are closed.

Yes, I am enlivened by the collective movement toward quietude and reflection, or at least the semblance of it. Even if it is somewhat artificial, one can clearly feel the difference between a day like this and a day when it is all happening "out there." This is an inner celebration...of Death. And that, too, enlivens me - that a day is taken out of the collective calendar to acknowledge Death. How absolutely rare this is. And in it, I rejoice.

How could consciousness rise again and again, if it were not for this time of dying? How could we ever return if we did not first fade away into death?

Perhaps if we could really do this, acknowledge Death, we would not need to kill innocents, and innocence, to feel, erroneously, that we will prevail and survive.

To all those who have lost their lives in sacrifice to our inability to acknowledge the real meaning of Death, I bow in deepest respect and deepest sorrow. I also bow in gratitude. Their suffering is innocent suffering, just as Christ's suffering was innocent and, therefore, somehow redemptive - even if unconscious and unacknowledged.
To all those in Iraq and other places who are tortured, maimed and decimated by the shock and awe of Death's denial, I suffer with you.

May the consciousness of all soon be Raised enough to stop this criminal madness.