the 'enemy'
Interestingly, the term 'enemy' comes up quite a lot in Tibetan Buddhist rituals [Tib.: dgra (pron. DRA)]... There, what it basically means is a "spirit" (read "attitude") that is opposed to and obstructing what is valuable...
Such texts - couched, very often, in exquisite poetry be it said - tend to seek to dissolve and liberate such "spirits" back into the "space" from which they came and reconstitute them as supportive, loving and helpful...
Very often the 'enemy' who is doing us harm is our own way of reading the situation and our own activities in consequence.
Obviously there is no single cause - no one-on-one cause and effect: the situation - for an infinity of 'reasons' recognised and unrecognised - *seems* thus-and-thus, so - for an infinity of reasons both recognised and not - we 'respond' in such-and-such a manner... ad infinitum and ad nauseam... That is the exact definition of samsara - 'running round in circles'.
Ultimately any happiness or peace we are going to gain will *not* be in trying to rearrange the pieces on the chess-board but only in rearranging the attitude of the chessplayer. Kawabata's 'The Master of Go' is a perfect illustration of just this.
As is the present international situation.
It is also true that the "reasons" someone may have for becoming an enemy - regarding you as an enemy, may not be clear to you.
They may not like your haircut or the way you smell; they may object to what they regard as your 'high-handedness' when you are simply trying to get something across or get on with things. They may hate your political or religious views, regard you as obstructive, greedy or even as a downright threat to their own continued existence...
This is not necessarily 'rational', but is certainly 'reasoned out' adequately enough in that person's mind for them to believe in the truth of what they perceive, no?
If, on top of this, that person's only information about you stems from others who have already decided upon your worthlessness and the fact that you are a danger to what they consider 'the public good', you are left with an 'enemy' who doesn't even know who or where or what you are.
They may not even 'know' why they don't like you - it's just something instinctual.
And it's what we do too.
It is certainly Christian (and definitely Buddhist or Taoist) to remember "Let peace begin with me...."
All that is really necessary, as HH Dalai Lama never tires of saying, is ordinary human intelligence and ordinary human kindness... the realisation of the fact that we are - all of us - from the very stones on up - in this together and will need to pull together if anything is ever going to work at all.
It's all very well to imagine that those who seek to temper your path are 'enemies', 'jeremiahs' or 'panic-mongers', but this is simply refusing the evidence of your own senses - these people and this information ARE trying to temper your approach... Of this you can be 99.9% sure because it IS actually happening to you, or so it would seem. What is happening to you, when tough seeming, is generally a "message" from yourself that you've gone awry.
To simply write them off as 'idiots' and 'wrong' is to miss the point entirely. It doesn't matter what they are at all; what matters is that they are calling you to look into you...
And - if they regard the very ground upon which you walk as defiled, then they are calling you to reexamine your weltanschauung to its very roots... Could it just be that certain details - even very tiny ones - might be... shall we say?... not quite up to scratch?...
Without our genuine self-reflection (which is the exact opposite of basking in one's own god-given rightness and actually entails perceiving oneself in the 'mirror of the other', albeit that this is sometimes a distorting mirror) there is not much hope of happiness or peace on this planet in our time, that's for sure.
What, for example, if the very bases - the very roots - of our philosphy were wrong?
What if we have glossed over the bits that require genuine commitment in favour of the short-term grab?
What if we really do have no idea what the hell is going here, what is good for us or what - if anything - the meaning/purpose/reason for life - for there being anything at all - might be?
What if - when we examine it - we find that ultimately everything is only part and parcel of everything else and that it cannot survive on its own for the simple reason that anything it is at any given instant is intimately enmeshed with whatever everything else is?
When we look in the mirror in the morning, who do we see? The brilliant, successful, happy, enlightened and always right 'me' of our imagination? And if not, why not? What is stopping us actually being that person?
Why is it that enemy number one is me? And - more to the point - what am I going to do about it?
Such texts - couched, very often, in exquisite poetry be it said - tend to seek to dissolve and liberate such "spirits" back into the "space" from which they came and reconstitute them as supportive, loving and helpful...
Very often the 'enemy' who is doing us harm is our own way of reading the situation and our own activities in consequence.
Obviously there is no single cause - no one-on-one cause and effect: the situation - for an infinity of 'reasons' recognised and unrecognised - *seems* thus-and-thus, so - for an infinity of reasons both recognised and not - we 'respond' in such-and-such a manner... ad infinitum and ad nauseam... That is the exact definition of samsara - 'running round in circles'.
Ultimately any happiness or peace we are going to gain will *not* be in trying to rearrange the pieces on the chess-board but only in rearranging the attitude of the chessplayer. Kawabata's 'The Master of Go' is a perfect illustration of just this.
As is the present international situation.
It is also true that the "reasons" someone may have for becoming an enemy - regarding you as an enemy, may not be clear to you.
They may not like your haircut or the way you smell; they may object to what they regard as your 'high-handedness' when you are simply trying to get something across or get on with things. They may hate your political or religious views, regard you as obstructive, greedy or even as a downright threat to their own continued existence...
This is not necessarily 'rational', but is certainly 'reasoned out' adequately enough in that person's mind for them to believe in the truth of what they perceive, no?
If, on top of this, that person's only information about you stems from others who have already decided upon your worthlessness and the fact that you are a danger to what they consider 'the public good', you are left with an 'enemy' who doesn't even know who or where or what you are.
They may not even 'know' why they don't like you - it's just something instinctual.
And it's what we do too.
It is certainly Christian (and definitely Buddhist or Taoist) to remember "Let peace begin with me...."
All that is really necessary, as HH Dalai Lama never tires of saying, is ordinary human intelligence and ordinary human kindness... the realisation of the fact that we are - all of us - from the very stones on up - in this together and will need to pull together if anything is ever going to work at all.
It's all very well to imagine that those who seek to temper your path are 'enemies', 'jeremiahs' or 'panic-mongers', but this is simply refusing the evidence of your own senses - these people and this information ARE trying to temper your approach... Of this you can be 99.9% sure because it IS actually happening to you, or so it would seem. What is happening to you, when tough seeming, is generally a "message" from yourself that you've gone awry.
To simply write them off as 'idiots' and 'wrong' is to miss the point entirely. It doesn't matter what they are at all; what matters is that they are calling you to look into you...
And - if they regard the very ground upon which you walk as defiled, then they are calling you to reexamine your weltanschauung to its very roots... Could it just be that certain details - even very tiny ones - might be... shall we say?... not quite up to scratch?...
Without our genuine self-reflection (which is the exact opposite of basking in one's own god-given rightness and actually entails perceiving oneself in the 'mirror of the other', albeit that this is sometimes a distorting mirror) there is not much hope of happiness or peace on this planet in our time, that's for sure.
What, for example, if the very bases - the very roots - of our philosphy were wrong?
What if we have glossed over the bits that require genuine commitment in favour of the short-term grab?
What if we really do have no idea what the hell is going here, what is good for us or what - if anything - the meaning/purpose/reason for life - for there being anything at all - might be?
What if - when we examine it - we find that ultimately everything is only part and parcel of everything else and that it cannot survive on its own for the simple reason that anything it is at any given instant is intimately enmeshed with whatever everything else is?
When we look in the mirror in the morning, who do we see? The brilliant, successful, happy, enlightened and always right 'me' of our imagination? And if not, why not? What is stopping us actually being that person?
Why is it that enemy number one is me? And - more to the point - what am I going to do about it?
posted by cloudhand at 2:47 AM
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