ATOMIC CONTRAST

ATOMIC CONTRAST

I was invited recently to present a seminar in Hiroshima, Japan, the city devastated by the atomic bomb in 1945. As I approached the Hiroshima train station via the bullet train, I felt uneasy, wondering if the psychic shadow of the holocaust would linger unto this day. To my surprise, Hiroshima Station felt light and airy, passersby friendly and upbeat. As my host drove me through Hiroshima’s streets, I was impressed by the comeliness of the area. Clean rivers wended beneath many bridges, banks highlighted by cherry blossom trees in full bloom. Families picnicked by the riverside as children laughed and played. Was this the same city instantly burned to a crisp by the world’s most dire single act of man-made destruction?

At the center of Hiroshima resides a lovely park dedicated to the intention that peace prevail on Earth. Manicured lawns form a soft backdrop to fountains and a waterfall. At one end burns an eternal flame set atop a simple altar where people from all over the world pray and leave flowers as a symbol of their wish for peace.

There my host told me that seers had explained that in the wake of such massive destruction through warfare, the desire for peace has grown to an extraordinary degree. Recently the Dalai Lama was joined by Bishop Desmond Tutu and Nobel peace laureate Betty Williams for a conference, ceremony, and declaration to further world peace.

Contrast teaches and ignites the desire for better. Negative events generate intense motivation for their opposite. When you get what you don’t want, you are more highly motivated to create what you do want. A bad marriage moves you to have a better one. Physical illness amplifies your intention for wellness. A business failure induces you to create more success. When you experience what clearly disturbs your soul, the next question is, “How can I create what I prefer instead?”

Life rushes to replace death and healing seeks to erase wounds. Human beings can do an act as heinous as dropping an atomic bomb on their brethren, and horrific as that act is, life will return with greater fervor for well-being. With the exception of one skeleton of a building now used as a tourist attraction, Hiroshima has been resurrected. Not just as a city, but as a city of determined peace.

You and I, too, have had our moments of pain, destruction, and perhaps even decimation. Yet those experiences always give way to life, and sometimes greater life. May we all learn from the contrast in our lives, individually and collectively, so that we may build parks of beauty over the ashes of war.


The holiest spot on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.
- A Course in Miracles

Alan Cohen
web:alancohen.com