Swami Beyondananda

In the wake of that recent vicious dogma bite that led to an unfortunate fatal karma crash, people are asking all kinds of questions: Why do we let killer dogmas run free? How do we deal with rabid dogmas? Can formerly-vicious dogmas be trained to sit, stay--and most importantly, to heal? In other words, can you teach an old dogma new tricks?

Yes, it's a dogma-eat-dogma world out there, filled with pit bulls whose bull pits them against other dogmas. And while we might be tempted to raise a stick to these bad dogmas, any dogma-trainer will tell you that you cannot train a dogma to be loving and obedient by beating it. To win a dogma's heart, offer it a treat. Say, "Good dogma. Sit. Roll over ... heal."

Now of course it's sad but true that when a dogma is foaming at the mouth and is clearly rabid, it must be put down before it infects other innocent creatures. Even the most sentimental dogma-lover understands that. So to help us all, I have divided dogmas into two categories: Angry, unfriendly FundaMENTALIST dogmas, and the happier, more friendly FUNdamentalist ones.

FundaMENTAList / FUNdamentalist

Accent on the mental. / Accent on the fun.

Heaven is above us. / Heaven is where you make it.

Ours is the One Way. / One Way? Do not enter!

Laughter is frowned upon. / Frowning is laughed upon.

Vow of chastity. / Vow of levity.

An eye for an eye. / Live and let live.

You stone people. / People get stoned on their own.

Now the good news is, even the baddest dogma can change simply by changing their emPHAsis to another sylLABle. And to help teach these dogmas to heal, I am launching a Blisskrieg to warm the heart of even the most fearful and angry dogma. And we begin by kindling the spark of peace in our hearts and turning it into a bright flame. Then we share this spark of peace to light everyone and everything we come in contact with. It's a fight to the life! We will light them on the land, we will light them on the sea, we will light them in the air! We will even shine the light of love and laughter into their caves!

And maybe with enough light, enough of us will get so frustrated with the stupidity of dogma-fighting, we'll just surrender and say, "Ah, peace on it!" And with a little peace here and a little peace there, who knows? We may end up with one Big Peace everywhere, and both Nonjudgment Day and Disarmaggedon will come to pass.