Osama Bin Laden is dead - should we be joyful?

On this evening, we received notice that President Obama had given the command to attack a compound in Pakistan, where intelligence reports determined Osama Bin Ladin might be, and that indeed, Bin Laden had been killed and his body taken in custody.

Ground Zero, May 2, 2011 after hearing of the death of Osama Bin Laden

Americans began congregating in Washington DC, and at Ground Zero. Many celebrated our accomplishment and some reveled in Bin Ladin's death.

Someone asked the question, is this the right thing to do? Is it right to be joyful that we have murdered a man?

So here I will address this question because I know there are many around the world who are torn between answering both; 'Yes,' and, 'No.'

It is not the matter of it being good or bad to celebrate a man's death, but it is how we focus our heart that we must learn.

We must celebrate a change in direction, a change in the course of justice, in the good that we intend, in the freedom that we will advance and in all that we may now be free to accomplish that took backseat to this conflict.

We must be proud of our military, the good hearts, the courageous ones that protect our freedoms with their very lives. Know these young people struggle, sometimes their entire lives, with the challenge of having killed another human being - even though it is their duty and may be an honorable act of war.

We must celebrate our president's courage to say, go, even if it is a murder.

But we must not revel in murder, for to do so is to activate a frequency that is ancient, violent and empowers a reaction of revenge. This is not what we are about.

Instead of declaring we are happy we murdered Bin Laden, we must say, we are happy we are now free of Bin Laden and his directives. And we pray that those who follow in his footsteps will refrain if only from fear of our power to retaliate, but hopefully in time through their realization that we can share this planet and be different.

Let us pour love into all those who despise us. Let us fill our hearts with love for their very spiritual essence is great. and let us ask their essence, their higher selves to filter new views, to see that we all desire the same thing - happiness, and that the violence in their holy books is not the voice of their God, but of someone who wrote in God's name without God's love in their heart.

Let us remember that there are many writings in the bible that speak to violence, and an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but we have gone beyond these words, yet we still call this book the work of God.

We are at the end of one age and the beginning of another, we must learn that love is power and we must make the transition to it.

Everyone will not come willingly, and we may have to use old means of force and power at times, but let us not forget where we are going, let us revel in the love of one earth, one tribe, with ideas and cultures unique and diverse.

Let us know that as we step forward we must always see that we are expanding love, as we are diminishing evil, and though some steps may be done in the old way, we will eventually break free into a new world where we seek to understand and embrace our differences, while honoring all life as sacred.