Tuesday, June 06, 2006

The Morning News

With palms together,
Good Morning All,

When the morning news contains stories about discovering severed heads in fruit baskets for a second time one must begin to wonder about the civilization which produces such things. War teaches us many things, one very important lesson is that we are none exempt from the world. Each of us has the capacity to do great harm to others when the conditions are right arise. Allegations of war crimes, torture, the severe blurring of the lines between the "good guys" and the "bad guys" should teach us that such lines are never real they are always subject to being shifted. Good and bad are but points of view and are conditioned by perspective.

My fear is that we will become more and more numb to the awfulness of these behaviors. It is easy to adapt, we do it all the time. Lowering our expectations, we don't work as hard for a better grade or a higher standard of living or a safer neighborhood, and by extension, a safer world.

One side justifies their behavior by pointing out what the other side has done or threatens to do. The end of course, as Gandhi pointed out, is the whole world will be blind. Fingers, meanwhile, point everywhere.

We must resist this murderous mentality, as well as a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness enveloping our world. Each of us has the capacity to be a buddha, to stop creating evil, to create good, and to create conditions for good to arise for all.

What's your next step? What would create conditions for good to emerge? Your answer is your future.

Be well.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's no such thing as a dirty book. It's just the way you read it.

Daiho Hilbert-Roshi said...

Hello grim and anon;

Grim, don't wobble, do.
Anon, "dirty" is something added. Our judgements are not the truth. They are simply mental processes. Morality does not depend on these, morality exists independent of these in our original mind which is our original nature which exists with or without "us."

Be well.

Anonymous said...

Harvey, I certainly hope you are right about being able to change. That is the main reason I sit. probably not the best reason but there it is.

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