the meltdown

My concern is to address certain issues that have been bothering me lately. I woke up one morning realising that I merely think I know. But it is only a belief for if I truly knew, what is the point of thinking? One only needs to think when one is unsure and does not know. When one fully knows, thinking about anything becomes redundant. Thinking and thoughts will not arise. All mental activities cease.

Maybe this is enlightenment, a state of complete bliss that Buddha speaks of vehemently in the Dharma. However, many dangers arise from wanting to reach enlightenment. It is not something that we can reach and become. To become something else means dropping our current habits, ideas, concepts, lifestyles, ideologies and philosophies to change into a new being. Just like taking off a pair of sports shoes and putting on a pair of formal leather shoes to attend a conference. I am no longer casually dressed but become professional in appearance. Alternatively, I can switch camps from being a Buddhist to a Christian or a socialist to a capitalist. In the end, it could still be a play of ideas and words.

As I can be easily attached to my self-interests, it is simply a matter of time that I am attached to being enlightened, to knowing. The catch is this, one that I named a holy trap in disguise, why in the world would anyone seek enlightenment? I am inquiring into this question. In the Diamond Sutta, it was said that enlightenment is only possible because of our human conditions, i.e. our many flaws. Human beings are inherently full of anger, desires and delusions that lead to endless pains and sufferings. And no one wants to suffer and everyone wants to be happy. Following neatly is the calling for one to be compassionate and caring. So, one ought to be kind and polite.

Like I said earlier, it is a holy trap. It is not the fault of any religion or humans' natural frailties, I dare say it is only because we think we know and stop there. Kindness is a tool and so is compassion. It is a description of a burning passion in the hearts of man. Descrptions are purely descriptions. They are not the burning passion itself. Descriptions and tools can be manipulated to control another person; likewise so can kindness and compassion when conditions are tied to any acts of charity. How many times have we extended a dollar or two to a beggar out of pity? But pity and sympathy somewhat comes from the same root, fear. We sympathise probably because we feel that we are luckier and better than the beggar or a man of dignity should be fed a warm meal or I can afford it.

But the question is this, why is anyone better than another just because one has more money and owns a house while the other owns pratically nothing? Isn't it a judgement that we exercise out of our feeling higher in rank and ego than one who we want to see as poorer and unfortunate?

a letter from chief seattle

The President of the United States of America purported to buy a piece of land in the 1800 from Chief Seattle, chief of the Suquamish Indians. And it was alleged that Chief Seattle wrote a letter in reply to the President. While it was said that the letter created an impact to those who read it, I wonder if it is an over statement. Although the letter seems powerful in words, it did not do so in action for man continued to butcher and destroy nature in the name of development. People acknowledge their differences but do not loosen their limitations to embrace one another. But I hope that it has at least planted a seed in the deep consciousness of man to realise that as children of this pale blue dot known as Earth, it is our responsibility to love, care and protect her and each other.

With this, I humbly reproduce the letter for your reading.

"The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow, every humming insect. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people.

We know the sap which courses through the trees as we know the blood that courses through our veins. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the dew in the meadow, the body heat of the pony, and man all belong to the same family.

The shining water that moves in the streams and rivers is not just water, but the blood of our ancestors. If we sell you our land, you must remember that it is sacred. Each glossy reflection in the clear waters of the lakes tells of events and memories in the life of my people. The water's murmur is the voice of my father's father.

The rivers are our brothers. They quench our thirst. They carry our canoes and feed our children. So you must give the rivers the kindness that you would give any brother.

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us, that the air shares its spirit with all the life that it supports. The wind that gave our grandfather his first breath also received his last sigh. The wind also gives our children the spirit of life. So if we sell our land, you must keep it apart and sacred, as a place where man can go to taste the wind that is sweetened by the meadow flowers.

Will you teach your children what we have taught our children? That the earth is our mother? What befalls the earth befalls all the sons of the earth.

This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.

One thing we know: our God is also your God. The earth is precious to him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on its creator.

Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? The wild horses tamed? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men and the view of the ripe hills is blotted with talking wires? Where will the thicket be? Gone! Where will the eagle be? Gone! And what is to say goodbye to the swift pony and then hunt? The end of living and the beginning of survival.

When the last red man has vanished with this wilderness, and his memory is only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any of the spirit of my people left?

We love this earth as a newborn loves its mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it, as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children, and love it, as God loves us.

As we are part of the land, you too are part of the land. This earth is precious to us. It is also precious to you.

One thing we know - there is only one God. No man, be he Red man or White man, can be apart. We ARE all brothers after all."