As Americans, we have some special days that we celebrate as three-day weekends.

One is for those who died in war. One is for laborers.  One is for a craven genocidal creep. One is for Washington (our 9th president), and one is for MLK.

The reason we celebrate MLK is that he effected change by using conscientious objection and non-violent protest. The concept of civil disobedience was largely borrowed from Gandhi’s struggles against British Colonial Rule and Apartheid in South Africa.

But where does the root of these ideas lie?  The concept of ahimsa means to not harm, whether in thought, word, or deed. In fact, we live in a time of great ahimsa, as we always have.  It is in man’s nature to love, not to hate, and that is why the refusal to engage with a system of oppression under its own terms, however dehumanizing and provocative, is so powerful.

It is certainly not easy to “turn the other cheek” as Jesus recommended, but when we choose the love emotion in the presence of the fear and hate, the energy mismatch leaves both ourselves and the would-be oppressor in a higher state of grace.

In these times, the greatest terrorist threat is our own acceptance of programmed reality. CNN sends us daily images of Ebola and Isis but in truth, those threats are abstract and finite in their scope.

On a personal note, we need to “emancipate ourselves from mental slavery” as Bob Marley wrote, by challenging the assumption that aging is predestined and stalking us.  When we accept that terror into our lives, we allow the medical-industrial complex to get us on a costly regiment of disease management when the power to heal is nascent within us all and can be unlocked using adaptogenic herbs and lifestyle choices.

Namaste and thank you to a great leader and visionary for not only a three-day weekend, but for appealing to our higher natures in the collective evolution of history.