August a typical Sunday morning the
local Sikh temple has been open since
half past five extending a warm welcome
to anyone wishing to come in for some
quiet contemplation worship consists of
songs and sermons but doesn’t commence
till about 11:30 it’s not quite ten yet
but there’s already a bustle and energy
about the place into this place walks in
a gun man who without so much as a
when he’s finished six people are dead
including the president of the Sikh
temple a police officer takes out the
shooter but not until he himself has
been shot eight times most Sikh men and
many Sikh women wear a turban over their
unshown hair since 9/11 images portrayed
by the media of terrorists wearing
turbans and beards have led many people
to generalize that all turban wearing
individuals are terrorists so since 9/11
six have been targeted or singled out in
countless acts of racism many resulting
in the wake of the shooting the local
Sikh community the Wisconsin Sikh
community had a few options to react to
this horrendous act of racism one option
was to remain vengeful and harbor
feelings of resentment the other
alternative was to react or respond with
love and understanding and compassion
they chose the latter the whole
community along with their American
neighbors who also shared their grief
rallied together and the whole city
started on the path of healing six weeks
later a former white supremists King had
reached out his name was Arno Michaelis
he reached out and invited by deep
gallica the son of the press the sikh
president of the temple that was shot
down and invited him to dinner
Arno himself was the founding member of
when he heard that the gunman had been a
white supremists he agonized because he
thought maybe somebody that he has
inspired or even recruited over the
years love for his daughter single
parenthood and the forgiveness shown to
him by the people that he hated led him
to a guided him to a life with more
tolerance acceptance and peace Arno was
amazed at the amount of compassion that
he was shown by the very same people
that he once denigrated now it wasn’t
easy for Purdy to meet or know he was
understandably skeptical
at first but he’s grateful that he did
you see
but deep wanted to make his father’s
death a catalyst for peace and he saw in
our know a partner whose story could
reinforce the message that it is
possible to change violence into peace
since then the to the repentant racist
and the grieving son have formed a
community group called served to unite
it’s a group that works to counter
violence with peace a sick woman with
three sons and many friends who wear
turbans I’m acutely aware of the
prejudices that people carry within
themselves barriers appearances bring
about however I’m very passionate to not
let them affect any of us in any way I
earnestly believe that it is our
responsibility to learn to counter hate
with love and to respond with
understanding compassion forgiveness and
to recognize the oneness that connects
what do you see in this image most
people tend to see the gray circle first
until the wider more beige color
surfaces explicitly pointed out in a
very similar manner the behavior of a
few individuals can be taken by us to be
symptomatic of the entire community we
Harbor feelings of anger fear resentment
hate while choosing to forget that the
majority of the community is actually
for love and peace and this is true for
all cultures and groups if we can
imagine ourselves free of all labels all
separation all judgment of this world
and the life inhabiting it we can then
begin to understand what is oneness what
is oneness oneness is the seeing beyond
division and recognizing that we are
part of the same human tribe if each one
of us represents a grain of sand in the
desert then oneness is the awareness
that we are part of the whole the desert
but yet individual the grain of sand
separate yet not separate each grain
unique like each individual with a
particular lens through which to see the
so when do we experience oneness oneness
is usually experienced when there are
natural disasters post hurricanes
earthquakes mass shootings when the
entire community bands together and
begins to help each other to help find
survivors regardless of race gender or
even socioeconomic class at times like
these old patterns of thought stop
barriers drop we are no longer thinking
about me myself and I we all just act as
a whole during this time at this time
oneness is not only felt but understood
intuitively according to Einstein it is
our task to free ourselves from thoughts
that imprison us and to widen the circle
of compassion to encompass all living
creatures how can we take this concept
of oneness so that we can heal the
wounds of our global community so that
we can manifest the peace and the power
and the awareness that is our true
nature this short clip helps illustrate
a crucial point
[Music]
[Applause]
only with a vision as powerful as x-rays
can we see that beyond physical
differences were all the same as a
scientist and an artist I believe that
we are connected from the most tangible
perspective to the most absolute one we
are in a relationship with each other
and we affect each other
in all sorts of ways physically mentally
spiritually emotionally if we can
recognize the oneness that connects us
far we can look forward to a society
with much less hate and fear with a lot
more acceptance love and compassion it’s
very common for people to say I’m half
Irish or 1/4 German when people ask me
about my ethnic background are very
enthusiastically
and with great pride tell them I am
three-quarters water and one quarter carpet