Posts Tagged ‘holocaust hero’
May 15, 2009 — THE SECRET of How to Remove Lint from Your Navel
May 15th, 2009 | 
Author: Proverbs 27:23: “Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds.”
You might have to do some slanted thinking to tie in my title with today’s lesson of wisdom. I think you’ll get the connection, though. Even the most way-out Law of Attraction teachers would.
A story told often is of the devoted shepherd who cared for his sheep. Even if he had a flock of a hundred, if one sheep were missing, he’d go out in search for it no matter what dangers to himself. “There Were Ninety and Nine” is a gospel song that echoes that image.
So many of the teachers of The Law of Attraction, as found in the book and DVD THE SECRET, focus so much on achieving one’s own goals that they virtually ignore the lost sheep. In short, much selfishness rings through in their teachings.
For instance, in the DVD version, Lisa Nichols, one of the star teachers, says, “It’s not your job to make the world a better place.” What is your job? She says it’s to make yourself a more successful person, attracting the power of the Universe to deliver your wishes to you.
But let’s consider Irena Sendler. If it hadn’t been for her, at least 2,500 Jewish boys and girls would’ve been murdered in the Nazi death camps. Perhaps Irena didn’t think of “making the world a better place.” But she definitely thought about saving children ready to be tortured and killed. [Please see my previous post on this.]
Irena was a Polish Roman Catholic social worker in Nazi-controlled Warsaw in World War II. She and a colleague, dressed in nurses’ uniforms, went into the ghetto of over 500,000 Jews, herded there by the Germans. The two nurses brought food, clothes and a vaccine against typhoid, a great threat to thousands. But the greatest threat was the Nazi grand scheme—to herd most of these Jews to the Treblinka death camp.
Irena became part of the escape network. Some children were transported out of the ghetto in coffins, suitcases, sacks, and even a mechanic’s toolbox. Some escaped through the sewer system beneath the city.
Irena witnessed the heartbreak of parents trusting their children to others. She promised to do her best to reunite them after the war. So she kept a notebook with the children’s names—over 2,500 of them.
Eventually, the Nazis captured Irena, but she would not reveal her partners. For this she suffered beatings, broken limbs, and even a death sentence. Only through the help of a kind guard was she able to escape.
If Lisa Nichols and other self-sufficient gurus of THE SECRET were to counsel Irena, what would they say? “Irena, it is not your job to save these children. They attracted this upon themselves through their thinking. Don’t interfere.”
So, what is the THE SECRET’S secret of removing lint from one’s navel? “Send positive thoughts out into the Universe. The Universe will remove the lint. It is not your business to make your navel a better place.”
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960.
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May 3, 2009 — THE SECRET = SELF-HELP FOR NAVELS
Proverbs 15:33: “Fear of the Lord teaches wisdom; humility perceives honor.”
In the last few years, millions of readers and viewers have adopted the mantra of “The Law of Attraction” as propounded in THE SECRET and other media.
As I listen to and read this teaching, I am sickened by the self-focus so much of this stuff teaches and encourages. “The Universe” (or THE THING—see last post) exists for YOU. Every guru in THE SECRET focuses self-absorption. “As you learn The Secret, you will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want” (page xii). We used to call it “meditating on your belly button!”
They will quote, often out of context or little snatches that fit in with their teachings, from the great teachers and leaders of the ages, such as Jesus and Solomon. But they dare not refer to equally pertinent quotes from “leaders” who, in seeking their own destiny, destroyed millions of lives.
Such as Adolf Hitler. If you examine his teachings in Mein Kampf and his actions and those of his cohorts, you will see that he would have been an ideal candidate for THE SECRET. He obeyed the so-called law of attraction. “To use the law of attraction to your advantage, make it a habitual way of being, not just a one-time event” (p. 93). Hey, you sure did that, Herr Hitler! You went all out.
What’s greater than “the law of attraction?”
The law of loving action.
My sister-in-law sends me a lot of “forwards” on my email. I’m very thankful for today’s. I’ve heard of many heroes of the holocaust, such as Anne Frank, the family of ten Boom, Oskar Schindler, Raoul Wallenberg—the historical list includes thousands of known saviors.
But until today I never heard of Irena Sendler, who died May 12, 2008, at age 98. She was a Polish Roman Catholic social worker who saved at least 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War.
Irena Sender, Holocaust Hero
Did she use “the law of attraction?” You decide. This I know: God used the love in her heart to act for children targeted for the Nazi death camps. She risked her life.
“All you have to do to receive is feel good,” writes Rhonda Byrne in THE SECRET (p. 53). I’m sure Irena felt deep joy in saving the lives of babies and children from death camps. She also received capture by the Nazis and imprisonment, felt torture, broken legs, mangled feet, disfiguring scars, and a death sentence.
She attracted those “rewards” to herself, not by navel-gazing and sending her thoughts out to “the Universe,” but by acting out her love in a tangible, risky way.
I’m so moved by Irena’s story that I will continue it in future posts. You might want to read more about Irena Sendler on the internet. Very inspiring…and humbling.
You might even forget, for a few moments, that you have a navel. I wish those teachers in THE SECRET would forget theirs!
“We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. That term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little. I could have done more. This regret will follow me to my death.” – Irena Sendler (1910 – 2008).