Thoughts on Hearing of Terrible Events

It has been said that the true weapons of mass destruction are greed, anger, and ignorance. Because we are ignorant, we allow anger to grow into hatred. Hatred unleashed will have terrible repercussions. The pain that is left behind is unimaginable, lives changed forever in an instant. 

There are those in this lifetime who are victims who have apparently done nothing to warrant the deeds done to them. But our perspective is incredibly limited—limited to just this one lifetime. One out of countless lifetimes. A victim one lifetime. A perpetrator the next.

So often we ourselves give in to anger all the while thinking “Well, I don’t hate. I’m just irritated.” More precisely, we’re not thinking, not aware of what we are truly feeling and acting upon. It all starts with an individual, an individual who is not mindful of what they are thinking, saying, or doing. An individual who may be so focussed on self that there is no awareness of what is happening in the lives of others. 

This should not sound strange for we all do this every day. 

We need to be constantly vigilant to catch the rising irritation, resentment, frustration before it erupts. There are consequences to everything we do. They may be immediate. They may not occur for a thousand lifetimes. But occur they will. 

We need to let go of anger, frustration, resentment, selfishness, self-interest. If we fail to do so, one day our own consequences will come to us. And they may be terrible. We won’t know why they have happened because most likely the causes will have occurred in another lifetime.

What of the terrible things happening to others? We need compassion for the victim. That's the easy part. The harder part is to have compassion for the perpetrator who will one day be a victim.

For now, as we strive to have compassion for all, we grieve.

We grieve for all victims.

Of all times. 

And then we work harder to not add more fuel to this vicious cycle.

Amituofo