Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Sometimes in April

Humans are supposed to be beings with a highly malleable mind. With all the right conditions and efforts, we should be able to reach enlightenment. Yet history have shown we are capable of extreme malice. Read and you'll see the kind of horrifying pain and suffering inflicted by us in conflicts, both on a personal or mass level. You'll see genocides, massacres, wars, tortures, slavery and violent crimes being committed since the dawn of mankind.

Watching HBO's feature film, Sometimes in April reminded me of one thing: the human mind, once badly defiled, are capable of terrible deeds. See how envy and anger fan hatred till people can simply kill others wantonly. See how greed and lust for power can cause deep seated resentment between fellow countrymen. Read this horrifying account: Massacre at Nyarubuye Church

Above: see how defiled men can become - smiling before brutally killing others.

All the defilements in our mind: ignorance, greed, anger, hatred will rain pain and destruction if not curb and contain. If you cannot relate, try watching the movie above and imagine that it's your own mother, father, bro, sis, children who are being pursued and hacked to death. I tried that and found myself pleading with the bloodthirsty attackers to spare my loved ones, then helplessly watched them being killed right in front of me. So do you still want to complain about your lousy day? Aren't you glad you were not born in some poverty striken countries torn apart by wars and conflicts, and living in subhuman conditions?

It's really so important to cultivate loving kindness and compassion, to overcome and cleanse our mind from anger and hatred. So that ultimately, if not for the pursuit of freedom from suffering, at least we can still recognise ourselves as human beings.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Charles.
ive read your recent web log and agree wholeheartedly with you.
in fact i thank God every day for blessing me with 2 devoting parents a lovely wife and two beautifull sons.
i consider myself born of privallage not in the finacial way but in my family.
Its all too easy to forget and ignore the suffering of millions world wide children born in poverty or abandonned this not only happens in third world countries but also on your own door step.
if one person in twenty in the free world was to take one minute out of there busy day and think of the suffering of the majority im sure something could be done to ease their pains.
I wish you and your daughter long healthy and happy lives together.
May God bless you once again.

Anonymous said...

When you see the atrocities committed in the world, it can be easy to look at our own lives as fortunate. To live surrounded by hate is horrifying, to live with hate inside, even more so. The tragedy of man's inhumane treatment to man is a long, heartbreaking story.

Although being able to put our own problems in perspective when hearing of these atrocites, we have to watch that we don't judge, that we don't try to categorize certain kinds of suffering as trivial. They all demonstrate Buddha's teaching on the suffering in this world.

To tell a person that has a migraine headache he should be thankful for his lot, is not productive, to tell him that it is karma isn't either. Just help ease the suffering of the person any way you can. This is the bodhisattva way.

Anonymous said...

Powerful movie evoke deep emotions. Hope we can make use of our emotion positively.