I need to reconcile a few thoughts that have been swirling around in my head in response to this past week.
Firstly, the Boston Bombing and the proceeding news coverage has been yet another blow to the collective consciousness. It disturbs me that most media voices claim that we've handled the situation well. Even more disturbing to me are the comparisons I've heard made to 9/11. This pathetic attempt at a "terrorist attack" was nowhere near as devastating, and I'm ashamed that we as Americans are so quick to demand justice for fragile bourgeoisie types, yet we are so disdainfully slow at working justice for the disenfranchised and poor. Worse bombings than this have been happening with much more frequency in the middle east and no one gives a damn. But when it happens on our own land we freak out. Worse crimes are committed daily by powerful people in our own country and we turn a blind eye. This manhunt we arranged for the suspect, a scared 19 year old boy, speaks volumes about the way we neglect our obligation to raise a generation in love instead of in constant fear, hatred and paranoia. What's more dangerous: a kid with weapons or a society that teaches kids no better way?
Poverty is a deadly state. Not only material poverty, but also intellectual and spiritual poverty. All of these are compounded by the fact that we are in so many ways afraid or unwilling to share with our neighbors. We may live in one of the richest nations in the world, but our spiritual poverty is our undoing.
Thankfully, there are many places in America and the world at large where there is Spirit in abundance. Where love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are not only high-minded ideals, but tangible realities. If you don't know where these places are, all I can say is look for them. Intently. And if you can't find them, insist upon them in your own life. It's my wish that we could maximize these states of being, and minimize our preoccupation with unending strife.
I saw a episode of an HBO program called Vice this past evening. There were some heart-rending images of babies born with birth defects in war-torn countries. Excuse me for saying so, but this is my only frame of reference for something like this: they looked like mutants from a comic-book. Except this was real.
Real Death. Real Suffering. It's not hard to find... except in some ways, it kind of is. It makes me realize how sheltered my life has been, that although I've seen dead people, I've never seen anyone die or be killed in person, never seen any truly disturbing sicknesses up close, never been involved in any sort of brutal violence, never really wanted for anything as I've always had more than basic food, shelter and clothing.
It's a curious position to be in, as I am neither seeking
these experiences, nor running from them. As I see it, I am simply
living life as it has been granted to me. I'm learning not to feel
guilty because of such privilege, but also not to give in to complacent,
entitled attitudes. I want to make choices that I can be proud of,
living as meaningfully as I know how and relating to others as lovingly
as I possibly can, all the while knowing that I am only a human being and we all have to
make the most of our frustrating limitations.
It creates a painful disconnect in me to be bombarded with images of people in terrible suffering on a daily basis, yet to be so powerless to do anything about most of it. Then I realize I have the power to turn the TV off, or go offline, but is that just being willfully (or blissfully) ignorant? After ages of civilization, why have we not figured out an answer for this problem? Must social advancement always come hand in hand with social devastation?
I've read how in Buddhist thought, nothing is more real than the present world around you. And yet, life is merely an illusion. The illusion of suffering, bondage, or more specifically, Samsara. If we can only Awaken, as the Buddha did, to the moment, by the awareness of impermanence and the practice of non-attachment, then we will find Enlightenment.
I write of this, not to deny the suffering of others, but rather to affirm the non-suffering in my own life at this present moment, and, hopefully, to share this affirmation with someone else. If someone has the spare time to read this post, the digital/electronic means to receive it, and the awareness that such a connection between persons is a blessing, then maybe we can make more and more similar connections with the people around us (both physically and in cyberspace). We can choose better ways; we can turn away from destructive things and lean instead toward constructive ones, moment by moment, step by step. So often we wallow in endless miseries, wandering from one shocking tragedy to the next as if the depravity of man were something new and novel. If only the whole world could start consciously affirming non-suffering, not by denying suffering, or worse, condemning one another to needless suffering, but by embracing suffering as a pathway to peace, by envisioning the inevitable transformation of suffering into something better...
I think this is a good time for "The Serenity Prayer" by Reinhold Niebuhr.
God grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
and Wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
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