Buddhist psychology teaches that we’re not our thoughts, our bodies, our feelings or our personalities. Who we are is the awareness, compassion and kindness that observes our thoughts, our bodies, our feelings and our behaviour.
This psychology also teaches that our suffering occurs when we believe in a thought that is at odds with what was, what is and what will be in the future (this idea is specifically attributed to Adyashanti). When we suffer because of our inaccurate or delusional thoughts, others in our family and community can also suffer as well.
I’m going to offer four examples of what this looks like in today’s world.
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin has the idea that he wants to bring the Soviet Union back to its glory days. In order to do this, he has to retake the lands that left the Soviet Union upon its dissolution as a nation-state. He’s currently attempting to retake the lands in Ukraine. United States intelligence has stated that Russian losses and wounded number 315,000 people.
In the course of Putin’s attempt to restore the Soviet Union, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has reported that in the Ukraine, there have been 9,614 civilian deaths and 17,535 reported injuries as of October 27, 2023. Women’s lives, children’s lives, hospitals and shelters have been destroyed, in addition to homes and communities. In December 2023, it was reported that Ukrainian military causalities numbered 383,000. As of December 2022, the number of wounded Ukrainian military members numbered 17,329.
One man’s delusional wants have caused such suffering. Again, suffering occurs if we believe in a thought that is at odds with what is.
Hamas and Netanyahu
In 2005, Israel left the Gaza Strip, and the political fabric of this area was turned over to the Palestinians to govern. Out of this transfer of power, Hamas emerged as the leading political force. The only difficulty with this political equation is that Hamas appears to be committed to destroying Israel and every Jew on the face of the Earth.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas attacked, slaughtered, raped and tortured Jewish citizens. During this attack, 764 civilians died and 248 people were taken hostage. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s determination to destroy all vestiges of Hamas has brought about staggering causalities and the destruction of the Gaza Strip. Since the October attack, more than 22,000 Palestinians have been killed, and the majority of them were women and children.
The nature of Hamas’s way of guerilla warfare is the hide behind the skirts of women and use children as their protective shields. To eliminate members of Hamas, innocent Palestinians have been and will be killed. Homes have been destroyed, and much of Gaza looks like a moonscape. Israel has cut off water, electricity, medical support and food from going to the Gaza Strip. This act alone ensures disease and death for innocent Palestinians. Hospitals have been indiscriminately bombed.
Netanyahu is approaching the destruction of Hamas as an act of killing leadership and foot soldiers, when instead, Hamas is an ideology that people adopt. History has shown that an ideology doesn’t die by killing those who act it out.
What Netanyahu is doing is planting the seeds of resentment for those who have lost children, wives, husbands, family members and all of their material possessions. His starving of innocent citizens is only inflaming generations of these victims for decades to come.
Again, suffering occurs when we think a thought that is at odds with what is. Netanyahu’s killing people isn’t going to change the ideology that propels people to act as killing machines. He’s only creating more resentment and hatred toward the people of Israel.
The U.S. Congress
The mega-arm of the United States Congress thinks that their job is to slow down the passage of legislation in order to make the Biden administration look incompetent. Their approach to a do-nothing legislature allows them to gamble on the government going bankrupt. Their attitude is a cavalier, “it might be a good thing for the United States to go bankrupt.”
It’s as if these folks are clueless about what the net impact will be if the United States government doesn’t live up to its commitments to other nations throughout the world. Ukraine counts on the United States for weapons and munitions so they can stand up to Russian aggression. The United States is the grounding force in NATO’s ability to meet threats of aggression from Russia and other potentially hostile nations.
If a do-nothing Congress fails to act to support these treaties and commitments with our fellow security partners, the United States will lose its credibility on the world stage. The inaction of Congress will make it easier for the rest of our partners to feel threatened in ways that they don’t experience with the backing of the United States. Congressional inaction also entices our potential opponents to test the waters to see how far they can go when it comes to imposing their agendas on the world scene.
Again, if we believe in a thought that is at odds with what is, we and all who relate to us will suffer.
Trump
Finally, we can’t believe in delusional thoughts and not suffer. As a whole, if we did believe in the psychopathic and delusional lies of Trump or someone like him, we’d destroy our constitutional institutions. We wouldn’t be a country where all are equally protected under the law. Instead of an orderly transition of power between administrations, we’d have violence-tainted efforts to do away with our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of wholeness that are guaranteed under the U.S. Bill of Rights.
Reacting vs. responding: What can we do?
We need to become aware of what we think, what we say and what we do in our everyday lives. We must become aware of any reactivity we might have in relation to situations, thoughts, or interactions we might have with others. If we observe any reactivity in our behaviour, we need to stop, look and listen to what is going on within us.
Any time we react, we’re connecting with an emotional nerve ending that has been touched and we need to become conscious of how that nerve ending is connecting us with some area of pain in our lives. Only then will we be able to transcend from simply reacting to others to responding with awareness in our involvements with others and life itself.
Namaste.
"СВЯЗАННОЕ ЧТЕНИЕ" AMERICA’S HISTORY OF DISREGARD FOR OTHERS: And what we can do about it»
изображение: Викисклад
