I'm not the first person to have this thought, but those people who feel that gay couples are an abomination seem to have their priorities in the wrong place. How can love be wrong? Two people who love each other and are devoted to each other share a sacred thing. Hatred is an abomination and righteous hatred is even worse.
Speaking of discrimination, I was down the hall from a class today which seemed to be aimed at helping poor black kids break out of the cycle of poverty and insecurity which so many blacks are currently trapped in. What I mean by that is that black kids often grow up feeling inferior, and such internalized inferiority makes it very difficult to break out of the cycle. What's worse is that the racism in this country has morphed into a very difficult-to-combat form. Many people hide their racism even from themselves. Yet it is there. Powerful and deadly. In any event, the teacher was relating how she had been called "nigger" at a few times in her life and how terrible it made her feel. She seemed determined to try to muffle the effects that it might have on her students when they encountered human behavior at its most repugnant. Her advice was basically that it's okay to be angry, but you've got to realize that the person doing the name-calling is ignorant. I am glad that some people are reaching out to these kids, and I hope it has some effect.
May all beings be free of suffering and the causes of suffering . May all beings have happiness and the root of happiness. Even the hatemongers. For if such a person were to become truly happy, they would stop behaving the way they do. They would stop causing so much suffering. (Thanks to the Khenpos for explaining this.)
May any merit achieved here be dedicated for the benefit of all sentient beings.
2 comments:
Your last two paragraphs, which sound like blessings, remind me of a good meditation I learned. It's a breathing meditation. You inhale and think "Compassion for myself with this difficult family situation" (or whatever you need compassion for) and then exhale while thinking "Compassion for everyone struggling with a hard time with their family."
As you spread your focus outward from yourself, you gain relief. It's very balancing to remind yourself of all the other people suffering in the world.
This isn't quite on point with your post, but your extending blessings to angry, bigoted people reminded me of the balanced feeling in the above meditation, and maybe that's one of the principles of Buddhism. That good/bad polarities don't exist. But is that true? The victim of a murderer suffers more acutely than the murderer, I would posit. Though the murderer suffers too, both before and after his act. Unless he's a complete psychopath.
Sorry to ramble.
The last two paragraphs really are blessings. "May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness..." is the bedrock of Buddhism. It is the cultivation of Bodhicitta, a feeling of compassion for other sentient beings. ("Bodhi" means "Buddha".)
Your meditation sounds very much like bodhicitta practice. The dedication of merit is traditional in Tibetan Buddhism, a reminder that we are not doing this for ourselves alone.
I wouldn't say that good/bad polarities don't exist. I'm not equating victim with torturer. It's clear that we want torture, for example, to cease. Now if the torturer were to become truly happy and be free of suffering and igonrance, then that torturer would cease to torture others. It's not that I want them to be happy as a reward for their bad behavior. It's that I want them to be happy so they will stop their bad behavior.
This idea of psychopathy is interesting. What I know about it, which admittedly is very little, is that the pyschopath supposedly has no conscience, not even deep down. So one might argue that the psychopath is already happy, so gaining happiness will not stop him from killing. I don't know about that.
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