the buddha and the terrorist, my friends, is that very book. this book, written by satish kumar, questions our society's stance on violence. we've all grown up in a society that's war-torn, and it seems like even our own leaders are confused about how to deal with problems. their solution? violence. this book breaks down the wall of violence we all have built up, and truly is a message of hope.
in the book, a murderer named angulimala mindlessly kills people. one day, the buddha comes up to him, and questions him: why does he kill people he doesn't even know? the buddha finally gets to him, and causes a complete transformation in angulimala. when the buddha brings him back to the village where he killed so many people, all of the villagers want him killed.
then the buddha asks,
"angulimala killed people because he was filled with anger. you too are filled with anger and wish to kill him. how can anyone dissolve anger with more anger? fire cannot be extinguished by adding more fire- only water can extinguish fire. only with love can we overcome hate. only with trust can we overcome fear."
these powerful words made me question the way we live our lives. we're always taught to never let people take advantage of us, and to always fight back. but maybe that's the problem. maybe the reason our country is so messed up is because we just can't admit that we're wrong. and what's worse, we're not capable of forgiveness. we're not capable of forgiving people who have messed up because we're so certain that they'll mess up. we forget that all humans are capable of change.
"we are all changing all the time. the only thing we cannot do is to stop the process of change. only through change do we grow and evolve, so let us not be afraid of change."
you hear that? let us not fear change. let us embrace every inch of it. because the only way we will be able to overcome the violence that plagues this world is change. plain and simple.
No comments:
Post a Comment