New Zealand Shootings

Me speaking at The Aylmer Mosque

These are the words I spoke at The Aylmer Mosque, where the community gathered to remember those who were killed during the New Zealand attacks. It was an honour to be invited.

May they serve in our continuing journey of expanding consciousness.

Please feel free to share.
~Mony

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"Al-salam-alaykum.

When I sat to meditate on what to say this evening, my mind was demanding for me to answer:

How could anyone do this? Why? What could have possibly driven him? I felt the rage, the impotence, the injustice, all of it…

And then, I breathed, and became very still. And in the stillness, I understood.

My mind will never have enough answers that will satisfy it… or bring peace to a heart shattered in a million places.

I don’t know the answers.

But a higher mind does know. God - Allah - knows.

And in the stillness, I heard whispered: What is YOURS to do?

So, I reflected on that…what is mine to do?

I can’t look into the heart, mind or soul of the man who did this, but I can look into mine.

I can look at the hatred, anger and fear I have in my own heart… and do the work of healing it.

I can look at my judgements, my intolerances, my beliefs that keep me separate from the “so-called other”… and make peace with those.

I can do the work of putting together my own broken pieces….

And I can do this with the faith that in lifting myself out of my own darkness, I am also lifting out of that darkness the “other”.

This is ALL within my power to do. In fact, it is the only thing within my power to do: to choose what to think, how to act and what to believe.

And, today, I believe in the Way of Love – no matter how my mind protests and demands justice and retribution.

The Way of Love challenges me to see the Divine Light in the person I want to label “monster”; to know that the same Hand of Grace that created me also created him… which means he is my brother. And he is on the same journey – like all of us – from dark to light, from ignorance to understanding, from fear to love.

The Way of Love encourages me to make peace with my own demons, and find peace in my own inner world, so that I can bring it to my outer world.

The Way of Love invites me to PUT Love at the throne of my heart, so that it may guide my thoughts with Wisdom, and my steps (and deeds) with Compassion.

On the day I was invited to speak here, I was reading a poem that I deeply treasure, which coincided with the UN's International Day of Poetry. So I’ll take those as good omens to share this poem with you, written by the great Sufi poet and philosopher ibn Arabi.

'Before today, I abandoned my friend, if my religion did not side with his.
Now, my heart embraces every design:
The pasture for gazelles, and convent for nuns,
The temple for idols, and Kaaba for pilgrims,
The tablets of the Torah, and Book of the Quran.
For it is the religion of Love that I now follow…wherever its caravan may wander.
For Love is my religion and my faith.'

Thank you."

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