i am wondering if the message needed by everyone in the 21st century should be:
“Human suffering is caused by a lack of satisfaction with the way life is treating me”.
(Disappointment with circumstances, anger at mistreatment, etc.)
and
“Human suffering stops by letting go of our resentment and bitterness with the way life is treating me”
It seems all the extremism in the world is yelling: “we are angry with the way we are being treated.” Individuals, activist and religious groups, countries.
It looks like a huge bowl of “Payback” and “Protection against the bad people/circumstances outside of me”.
What is the expectation that causes us to think that “people/things/circumstances should be different than they are”?
It seems to be one humongous blame game out there.
(It seems that whenever we allow our subconscious mind to meander, it finds itself mulling or ruminating on these unsatisfactory things in our lives)
Two ditches pointing the finger at the opposite ditch, blaming the worlds problems on each other, while ignoring the problems we ourselves are creating.
What would happen if all of humanity pushed the “reset” button on this anger?
What if all the anger caused by folks (or groups or countries) being marginalized, suppressed, hurt, disappointed… stopped for an instant.
What if all that anger just vaporized…. even for one minute…..
One moment of silence please……
Would everyone be looking around and seeing a reality without anger?
In the silence of that moment…. with all eyes looking around them with no anger….
What would the world look like????
What would the world population look like if no one had a reason to be angry… just for one moment?
The picture that comes to mind, is one of mouths dropping open in a moment of “Eureka”. What the heck have we been doing???
It is truly shocking to imagine the world without anger…….
Are we all just angry children who need that momentary time out???
Is it possible that the world could experience this lack of anger, before we manage to annihilate ourselves in a fit of anger?
Why are we SO angry???
well…….. (this list not meant to be exhaustive )
Disappointment is caused by an expectation not being met.
Marginization is caused by one group seeing another group as being “not as good as us” (usually out of fear or hate)
Suppression is caused by one group wanting to control or silence another group (or irradicate their ideas).
Hurt is caused by one person\group causing harm to another person\group.
i think about all the groups who are warring against each other…..
i think about all the persons/groups who hate each other…. (or society)
i think about all the persons/groups who are angry at another group…. (or society)
These are ALL caused by “the expectation that the world outside “me/us” is not satisfying to me/us”.
If that doesn’t ring a truth bell, then think of one dis-satisfaction that is caused by something else…… anything? i am not coming up with anything…..
So, back to the beginning statement:
“Human suffering is caused by a lack of satisfaction with the way life is treating me”
How do we have a world different than what we are seeing presently?
Is not the answer to this staring us right in the face?
Let go of anger and hate.
But how do we let go of the dis-satisfaction which causes all this mess we find ourselves in? How do we let go of the anger and hate which we find inside ourselves?
I am going to let that question float…….. because each of us internally know the answer……..
Reality is Dharma 